Etymology

grain

G2R1A1I1N1

Today it means: The harvested seeds of various grass food crops, especially wheat, maize, rye, barley, and rice. Full definition →

Middle English greyn ← Old French grain ← Latin grānum
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grain · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ǵerh₂-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ǵr̥h₂-nós
  3. Proto-Indo-European*ǵr̥h₂nóm
  4. Proto-Italic*grānom
  5. Latingrānum
  6. Old Frenchgrain
  7. Middle Englishgreyn
  8. English todaygrain

From Middle English greyn, grayn, grein, from Old French grain, grein, from Latin grānum (“seed”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain”). Doublet of corn, gram, granum, and grao.

grain · noun2

  1. Proto-Germanic*grainiz
  2. Old Norsegrein
  3. Middle Englishgrayn
  4. English todaygrain

From Middle English grayn, from Old Norse grein (“bough, branch”), from Proto-Germanic *grainiz (“branch, twig, ramification”), of unknown origin. Related to English grove (“thicket”).

Words from the same roots

Latingrānum all →

granitegramgrangegrangergranulargranulegranumgraniformgrao

Proto-Indo-European*ǵr̥h₂nóm all →

corngrano

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.