You know, Americans don't know how to use the English language sometimes. The have misconceptions. About what is slang and what is standard. And don't have basic knowledge of things. Like the word corn. It's not the proper name for that yellow stuff on the cob. It's the word used to describe the native grain of any country. For most countries, that is usually wheat. In Scotland, they say it's oats. (And in 1815, the British parliament passed the Corn Laws. They were called the corn laws because they imposed tariffs on foreign grain to protect their native grain. Wheat, again.) And that is still all corn really means in American English too. Our native grain, maize. But there really is no word for "corn" in the US. In most other places, like the UK, they call corn maize. But maize is not American English. (Some people do call corn "Indian corn" though, if that helps.) And, to further complicate matters, corn in the US is eaten as a vegetable. Some Americans would even say they thought it was a vegetable. So, corn is the native grain of the US. But it is a grain, that is eaten when it is still raw ("green corn") as a vegetable. Try saying that five times fast. Also, some words are misused in the US. Some people think that to get electrocuted means to get an electric shock. It means to kill with electricity. It was first used in the US in the late 19th century, to describe death by electric chair. Also, some people think when something is very good, it is correct to say it is fabulous or fantastic. Fabulous means of or having to do with fables and fabled lands. The Salamander is a fabulous beast, for example. Fantastic means related to fantasies and dreams. Fabulous, for very good, is only correct in colloquial speech. Fantastic could be correct in formal speech, if you are trying to say it reminds you of a dream too, I guess. Also I once brought up on another message board that brimstone just means sulfur. As in the phrase fire and brimstone. And hasty pudding is any pudding you can make in a hurry. Which in Ben Franklin's time was 20 minutes. That's how long it took you back then to make cornmeal mush. And that is why he said in his autobiography that when he was a bachelor he often ate hasty pudding. I looked up the word hasty pudding in 1990, I think. And it said corn meal mush. Or oatmeal, in Scotland. Or some form of wheat cereal in the England, was once called "hasty pudding".
