ZD wrote:
“Corn was not available in Europe. Its a totally american crop and was brought back to Europe after the Europeans came to the new world”
and wrote:
“Wild rice is a GRASS not a rice, the only thing it has in common with rice is the name and it sort of looks like rice….”
While American corn was a new product in Europe, the word corn/korn was an old word which meant the staple grain. Notice that the consonant sounds are similar in corn and grain. I heard that they have the same Latin root. Because of the name, American corn was doomed from the start. It was associated with wheat, oats, or whatever chamets grain European people ate. Had they called it “maiz”, which is what the American natives called it, it might have had a chance.