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GRAIN (derived through the French fro...

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 322 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GRAIN (derived through the See also:French from See also:Lat. granum, See also:seed, from an See also:Aryan See also:root meaning " to See also:wear down," which also appears in the See also:common See also:Teutonic word " See also:corn ") , a word particularly applied to the seed, in botanical See also:language the " See also:fruit," of cereals, and hence applied, as a collective See also:term to cereal See also:plants generally, to which, in See also:English, the term " corn " is also applied (see GRAIN See also:TRADE). Apart from this, the See also:chief meaning, the word is used of the See also:malt refuse of See also:brewing and distilling, and of many hard rounded small particles, resembling the seeds of plants, such as " grains " of See also:sand, See also:salt, See also:gold, See also:gunpowder, &c. " Grain " is also the name of the smallest unit of See also:weight, both in the See also:United See also:Kingdom and the United States of See also:America. Its origin is supposed to be the weight of a grain of See also:wheat, dried and gathered from the See also:middle of the See also:ear. The See also:troy grain= 1/576o of a lb, the See also:avoirdupois grain= I/70oo of a lb. In See also:diamond weighing the grain = s of the See also:carat, = •7925 of the troy grain. The word " grains " was See also:early used, as also in French, of the small seed-like See also:insects supposed formerly to be the berries of trees, from which a See also:scarlet dye was extracted (see See also:COCHINEAL and KERHES). From the Fr. en graine, literally in dye, comes the French verb engrainer, Eng. " engrain " or " ingrain," meaning to dye in any fast See also:colour. From the further use of " grain " for the texture of substances, such as See also:wood, See also:meat, &c., " engrained " or " ingrained " means- ineradicable, impregnated, dyed through and through. The " grain " of See also:leather is the See also:side of a skin showing the fibre after the See also:hair has been removed. The imitating in paint of the grain of different kinds of See also:woods is known as " graining " (see PAINTER-See also:WORK).

" Grain," or more commonly in the plural " grains," construed as a singular, is the name of an See also:

instrument with two or more barbed prongs, used for spearing See also:fish. This word is Scandinavian in origin, and is connected with See also:Dan. See also:green, Swed. gren, See also:branch, and means the See also:fork of a See also:tree, of the See also:body, or the prongs of a fork, &c. It is not connected with " See also:groin," the inguinal parts of the body, which in its earliest forms appears as grynde.

End of Article: GRAIN (derived through the French from Lat. granum, seed, from an Aryan root meaning " to wear down," which also appears in the common Teutonic word " corn ")

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