Corning

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of shaping molten glass into containers such as jars or bottles ; the act of crushing or breaking a solid material into grains or granules
2. A manufacturing method that involves molding hot glass into specific forms like bottles or jars ; reducing a solid into smaller particles or grains through crushing
3. Shaping heated glass into useful containers by blowing or molding ; fragmenting a substance into coarse grains or pieces

Etymology: Before it meant a hardened lump on a foot or a grain sold in a sack, the root behind "corning" meant "grow old" or "mature," which is the idea of something worn down or ripened. The verb itself is the -ing form of "corn," the English word for grain. In glassmaking, "corn" in the sense of granulating a substance refers to breaking material into small coarse grains, as with gunpowder or salt, a sense that developed from the grain meaning. The same grain-related root produced the word "corn" for maize, which only took that sense in 18th-century North America, where it was shortened from "Indian corn." The word "corn" for a foot ailment is a separate, unrelated history. It comes from Middle English "corne," borrowed from Old French "corn," from Latin "cornū," meaning "horn," so the callus was named after the horny hardness of the skin. Keeping these two senses apart explains why the glassmaking meaning and the foot meaning share a spelling but not a source.

Synonyms: shaping, forming, molding, crafting, designing