Document text
50 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, November 25, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend November 20, 2004 Since you asked Corn grew from view of rural life We often hear "that’s corny," "I know this is corny, but..," or "isn’t that corny?" Where did "corny" come from? — Mike T., Ashland "And the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye...." We took your tasseled-vegetable etymological query to "The Maven’s Word of the Day" at Randomhouse.com. According to this site, and a few others we checked, the origin of "corny" and "corn" is connected with a few other terms referring to rural folk: "off/on the cob," meaning rustic and unsophisticated and corn-fed, originally meaning "fed on grain; well-fed or plump" and later meaning "rustic and unsophisticated" and "trite or overly sentimental." Something that is corny is ridiculously sentimental. This is supposedly a reference to the lack of sophistication of people in the country, where corn is grown. A variation of this connection with rural life was suggested by the writer Mari Sandoz in 1946: "In the later homesteading period of the High Plains, 1890 to around 1910, the joke book that came free to every home ... was the seed catalog [which] featured a great variety of seed corn ... interspersed with short jokes and riddles, sometimes even cartoons." Send questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by e-mail to [email protected] . We’re sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities