wardcorn
English
Etymology 1
ward + corn
Noun
wardcorn (uncountable)
- (UK, law, obsolete) A payment of corn to be offered in commutation of military service.
- 1842, George Oliver, Ecclesiastical Antiquities in Devon, page 100:
- And that the aforesaid Abbess and convent and their successors, and all tenants, residents, and non-residents, and other residents aforesaid, […] be quit through our entire realm of England of all pannage, lestage, […] and of treasure to be drawn away, and of wardpeny, wardcorne, averpeny, hundredpeny, […] and of all such custom
- 1989, George Feairheller Deiser, Year Books of Richard II - Volume 12, page 68:
- and from a rent called wardcorn one quarter, three bushels of barley worth fifteen shillings per year, at the value of five pence the bushel.
- 2002, Mark Bailey, The English manor, c.1200-c.1500, page 226:
- The additional payment of grain as ‘wardcorn’ is a local peculiarity, and refers to some ancient military responsibilty[sic] upon the vill[agers].
Etymology 2
ward + French corne (“horn”). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Du Cange ran across the term (Etymology 1) and misinterpreted it as referring to something similar to cornage, giving a definition that was then picked up by later writers.
Noun
wardcorn
- (obsolete, rare) (Can we verify(+) this sense?) The obligation to watch and keep guard, and blow a horn upon any occasion of surprise.
- 1876 June, Jennett Humphreys, “Merrie England”, in New Monthly Magazine, volume 9, number 54, page 697:
- The services similar to these performed by tenants to their lord were of an almost illimitable variety […] there was ward-corn, the necessity of watching and warding at a castle, and blowing a horn on a surprise […]
- (historical, rare) (Can we verify(+) this sense?) A watchman who blows a horn upon any occasion of surprise.
- 1989, John Lee, The Unicorn Dilemma, page 71:
- The only person who took notice of his return was the wardcorn, but his trumpet called forth no welcome.
- 2008, Catherine Palmer, The Briton, page 239:
- “Presenting Jacques Le Brun, lord of Warbreck,” the ward[-]corn announced.