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barleycorn

noun
/ˈbɑː(ɹ)liˌkɔː(ɹ)n/UK

Etymology

From barley + corn.

  1. inherited from *ǵr̥h₂nóm✻ — “grain; worn-down”
  2. inherited from *kurną✻
  3. inherited from *korn✻
  4. inherited from corn
  5. inherited from corn
  6. formed as barleycorn — “barley + corn”

Definitions

  1. A grain of barley.

    • The Town Mouse came, and they sat down to a dinner of barleycorns and roots, the latter of which had a distinctly earthy flavour.

  2. The length of such a grain

    The length of such a grain; a unit of length of approximately one third (or sometimes one quarter) of an inch or eight millimetres, still used as a basis for shoe sizes.

    • This trip to Italy has actually enlarged the diameter of my head thirteen barleycorns!

  3. A small groove between two moldings.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for barleycorn. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA