CORN - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

CORNAuthored

The Law Mind • 961 words

Definition

In legal usage, CORN has two distinct meanings depending on jurisdiction and context:

1. English law: A general term for any grain crop, including wheat, rye, oats, barley, malt, peas, and beans. This is the operative meaning in older English statutes, common law conveyances, and the standard memorandum clause of marine insurance policies, where the term was deliberately broad to cover the principal cereal commodities of trade.

2. American law: Maize (Zea mays), also called Indian corn. In American statutes, contracts, and property instruments, the word is ordinarily understood to mean maize only, not grain in general.

In marine insurance specifically: Under the memorandum clause common to English and early American policies, corn encompasses peas and beans but expressly excludes rice. This carve-out reflects the underwriting practice of treating rice as a more perishable, higher-risk commodity warranting separate treatment.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): In American English, corn means maize. In British and broader English usage, corn refers to whatever cereal grain is the primary staple of a region — wheat in England, oats in Scotland, maize in America.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 primary definition for corn is a thickening of the epidermis (a callus on the toe), with grain meaning appearing separately. This reflects the competing senses of the word in general circulation at the time.

Editorial note: The gap between common and legal meaning is real but jurisdiction-dependent. An American reader encountering "corn" in a 19th-century English statute or insurance policy must resist the instinct to read the word as maize. The English legal sense is grain-general; the American legal sense is maize-specific. Conflating them can materially alter the scope of a clause.

Common Confusion

The most important confusion is Anglo-American divergence. Researchers applying American interpretive assumptions to English legal sources — or vice versa — risk misreading the scope of any provision touching grain commodities. An English agricultural lease or insurance memorandum using "corn" covers wheat, rye, and oats. An American crop-lien statute or deed reservation using "corn" almost certainly means only maize. The distinction is not subtle; it determines what property or cargo falls within the instrument.

Why It Matters in Research

Corpus researchers encounter CORN most often in three contexts: (1) English agricultural law — copyhold agreements, tithes, manorial records, and statutes governing grain trade, where the broad English sense controls; (2) marine insurance — the memorandum clause excluding certain perishables from warranty of seaworthiness, where the peas-and-beans inclusion and rice exclusion are settled interpretive rules; and (3) American property instruments — crop liens, deed reservations, and farm leases, where the word tracks the American maize-specific meaning.

The trap in historical sources is straightforward but consequential: any English-origin form document imported into American practice retains the English broad sense unless expressly modified or unless surrounding American usage context overrides it. Courts in both England and America treated the question as one of local commercial custom, not universal definition, so the answer depends on which jurisdiction's practice governs the instrument.

Researchers tracing the corn laws — the English statutory scheme regulating grain imports and prices, repealed in 1846 — should note that "corn laws" uses corn in its English broad sense and has no inherent connection to maize. Black's 2nd edition flags the corn laws entry; researchers should follow that thread into English constitutional and trade history rather than American agricultural law.

For insurance research specifically, the memorandum clause interpretation is consistent across Bouvier, Burrill, and both Black's editions: peas and beans in, rice out. The cited treatise authority (Park on Insurance; Marshall on Insurance; Arnould on Insurance) represents the settled underwriting gloss, and those sources should be consulted directly for the full clause context.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries are in agreement on the core structure: broad English sense, narrow American sense, and insurance-specific rule. Bouvier is the most thorough, providing the insurance carve-outs and an American case citation for the maize meaning. Burrill adds the malt inclusion and cites Arnould on Insurance as authority. Black's 1st and 2nd editions track Bouvier closely, with the 2nd edition adding case citations for the American meaning. Anderson's entry is a cross-reference only, redirecting to GRAIN without independent content.

No historical source meaningfully disagrees. The dictionaries reflect a stable, settled interpretive divide rather than contested doctrine. What they collectively understate is the practical litigation history — American courts in the late 19th century did occasionally have to resolve which sense governed a particular instrument, and the answer turned on local commercial custom and surrounding contract language rather than any universal rule.

Jurisdictional Note

English law treats corn as a generic term for grain; American law treats it as specific to maize. This divergence is consistent across jurisdictions within each country and is treated as settled custom rather than a matter of dispute. Researchers working with instruments originating in England but operative in America — common in colonial-era and early republic property law — should examine whether the drafter used the English or American sense.

CORNmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In English law, a general term for any sort of grain; but in America it is properly applied only to maize. In the mem- orandum clause in policies of insurance it in- cludes pease and beans, but not rice. Park, Ins. 112.

CORNmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

In its most comprehensive sense, this term signifies every sort of grain, as well as peas and beans; this is its meaning in the memorandum usually con- tained in policies of insurance. But it does not include rice; Park, Ins. 112; 1 Marsh. Ins. 228, n.; Wesk. Ins. 145. See Com. Dig. Biens (G, 1). In the United States it usually means maize, or Indian corn; 53 Ala. 474.

CORNcrossref

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

See GRAIN.

CORNn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A thickening of the epidermis at some point, esp. on the toees, by friction or pressure. It is usually painful and troublesome. Welkome, gentlemen! Ladies that have their toes Unplagued with corns, will have a bout with you. Shak.

CORNn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A single seed of certain plants, as wheat, rye, barley, and maize; a grain. The various farinaceous grains of the cereal grasses used for food, as wheat, rye, barley, maize, oats. The plants which produce corn, when growing in the field; the stalks and ears, or the stalks, ears, and seeds, after reaping and before thrashing. In one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail had thrashed the corn. Milton. A small, hard particle; a grain. "Corn of sand." Bp. Hall. "A corn of powder." Beau & Fl. Corn ball, a ball of popped corn stuck together with soft candy from molasses or sugar.  -- Corn bread, bread made of Indian meal.  -- Corn cake, a kind of corn bread; johnny cake; hoecake.  -- Corn cockle (Bot.), a weed (Agrostemma or Lychnis Githago), having bright flowers, common in grain fields.  -- Corn flag (Bot.), a plant of the genus Gladiolus; -- called also sword lily.  -- Corn fly. (Zoöl.) (a) A small fly which, in the larval state, is injurious to grain, living in the stalk, and causing the disease called "gout," on account of the swelled joints. The common European species is Chlorops tæniopus. (b) A small fly (Anthomyia ze) whose larva or maggot destroys seed corn after it has been planted.  -- Corn fritter, a fritter having green Indian corn mixed through its batter. [U. S.] -- Corn laws, laws regulating trade in corn, especially those in force in Great Britain till 1846, prohibiting the importation of foreign grain for home consumption, except when the price rose above a certain rate.  -- Corn marigold. (Bot.) See under Marigold.  -- Corn oyster, a fritter containing grated green Indian corn and butter, the combined taste resembling that of oysters. [U.S.] -- Corn parsley (Bot.), a plant of the parsley genus (Petroselinum ssegetum), a weed in parts of Europe and Asia.  -- Corn popper, a utensil used in popping corn.  -- Corn poppy (Bot.), the red poppy (Papaver Rhoeas), common in European cornfields; -- also called corn rose.  -- Corn rent, rent paid in corn.  -- Corn rose. See Corn poppy.  -- Corn salad (Bot.), a name given to several species of Valerianella, annual herbs sometimes used for salad. V. olitoria is also called lamb's lettuce.  -- Corn stone, red limestone. [Prov. Eng.] -- Corn violet (Bot.), a species of Campanula.  -- Corn weevil. (Zoöl.) (a) A small weevil which causes great injury to grain. (b) In America, a weevil (Sphenophorus zeæ) which attacks the stalk of maize near the root, often doing great damage. See Grain weevil, under Weevil.

CORNv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To preserve and season with salt in grains; to sprinkle with salt; to cure by salting; now, specifically, to salt slightly in brine or otherwise; as, to corn beef; to corn a tongue. To form into small grains; to granulate; as, to corn gunpowder. To feed with corn or (in Sctland) oats; as, to corn horses. Jamieson. To render intoxicated; as, ale strong enough to corn one. [Colloq.] Corning house, a house or place where powder is corned or granulated.

cornnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

Any cereal plant (or its grain) that is the main crop or staple of a country or region. | Maize, a grain crop of the species Zea mays. | A grain or seed, especially of a cereal crop. | A small, hard particle. | A type of granular snow formed by repeated melting and refreezing, often in mountain spring conditions. | Bullets, ammunition, charge and discharge of firearms. | Money.

cornverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To granulate; to form (a substance) into grains. | To preserve using coarse salt, e.g. corned beef. | To provide (an animal) with corn (typically maize; or, in Scotland, oats) for feed. | To render intoxicated. | To shoot up with bullets as by a shotgun (corn).

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