Why is it called grain?

[Stanleymonkey]

Evening,

Is there a reason why wood grain is called 'grain'? I understand that it used to be small weight and of course wheat and flour are linked with the word.

There even used to be a dye made from insect apparently:

Earliest sense of the word in English was "scarlet dye made from insects" (early 13c.), a sense also in the Old French collateral form graine;

But I can't see how any of these link to wood grain.

I'm not being a pedant. I teach fairly young kids and we talk about the grain and sanding or planing with it. I get asked at least once every month 'Why is it called grain?' and I don't have a clue.

Can anyone shed any light on this or is it lost in the mists of time?

 

[Adam W.]

Well, stone has grain too and it's the direction of the bed. So maybe that has something to do with it.

 

[Cabinetman]

It’s a very good question, all these years and it’s never crossed my mind to wonder.
Just mention when I taught young children I used to use the analogy of stroking a cat or a dog to show the way the grain sloped. Ian

 

[Droogs]

perhaps as it looks like grain that has been tramped down or bushelled, ie the lines light and dark and just used in colloquial speech that became common

 

[Stanleymonkey]

It’s a very good question, all these years and it’s never crossed my mind to wonder.
Just mention when I taught young children I used to use the analogy of stroking a cat or a dog to show the way the grain sloped. Ian

I like that analogy with cat/dog hair. Someone was struggling with a plane today and that would have helped me explain.

 

[Adam W.]

If they still can't get it, I ask people to close their eyes and gently run their fingers across the surface of the timber.

You get slight prickles one way and no prickles the other. It even works with machine planed wood.

 

[ArferMo]

A Google search for 'entymology grain'
has this to say:-
Figuratively, "the smallest possible quantity," from late 14c. From early 15c. in English as the smallest unit of weight (originally the weight of a plump, dry grain of wheat or barley from the middle of the ear).

From late 14c as "roughness of surface; a roughness as of grains." In reference to wood, "quality due to the character or arrangement of its fibers," 1560s; hence, against the grain (1650), a metaphor from carpentry: cutting across the fibers of the wood is more difficult than cutting along them.

 

[Inspector]

When I was a kid the answer would have been "Because!" and that would be the end of it.

Pete

 

[Stanleymonkey]

perhaps as it looks like grain that has been tramped down or bushelled, ie the lines light and dark and just used in colloquial speech that became common

View attachment 110973

I've been googling similar pictures - I think you might be onto something. Flattened crops, harvested crops would have been an everyday sight

 

[John Brown]

A Google search for 'entymology grain'
has this to say:-
Figuratively, "the smallest possible quantity," from late 14c. From early 15c. in English as the smallest unit of weight (originally the weight of a plump, dry grain of wheat or barley from the middle of the ear).

From late 14c as "roughness of surface; a roughness as of grains." In reference to wood, "quality due to the character or arrangement of its fibers," 1560s; hence, against the grain (1650), a metaphor from carpentry: cutting across the fibers of the wood is more difficult than cutting along them.

I think this is it.
After all, we say a grain of sand, or a grain of salt. Full grain leather. Granularity, there's another connection. So a grain of wheat or barley was considered to be the smallest part. I sincerely doubt that it has anything to do with the visible similarity to sheaves of corn.

 

[sirocosm]

Maybe because if you look at the end of a piece of wood, it looks like a bunch of little grains?

 

[TominDales]

I think this is it.
After all, we say a grain of sand, or a grain of salt. Full grain leather. Granularity, there's another connection. So a grain of wheat or barley was considered to be the smallest part. I sincerely doubt that it has anything to do with the visible similarity to sheaves of corn.

Interesting question - this forum brings them up. I think you are on the right lines, my dictionary says the word derives from the Latin Granum meaning seed. I supose in ancient times, they were very familiar with the look of different grains and its was natural to apply that to wood and stone.

 

[Owd Jockey]

Perhaps another way of looking at this is the use and meaning of the word "Ingrained" or "Engrained" with describing something that is fixed, entrenched, established etc....

 

[JohnPW]

The Oxford English Dictionary is free to use if you've got a library card, log in here:

https://www.oed.com/loginpage
the library card gets you access to other reference works as well.

It's a quite a long entry, here's my summary:

1, Seed; seed of cereal plants, corn.

2, smal particles, eg grain of salt, grain as measure of weight

3, With reference to dyeing. [ < Old French graine; the Kermes or Scarlet Grain was believed to consist of seeds or berries.] extended to engrained, in grained.

4, Granular texture

a. A roughness of surface, giving the appearance of ‘grains’ (sense 7) or small roundish bodies side by side. Hence in an engraving or drawing, a granular appearance produced by dots or lines.
b. Photography. An appearance of mottling or granulation in a negative.

leather grain

The texture of any substance; the arrangement and size of its constituent particles, appearing in an exposed surface or in a cross-cut or fracture, eg flesh, wood, stone, metal.

The longitudinal arrangement of fibres or particles, in lines or veins more or less parallel along which the material is more easily cloven or cut than in any other direction:

a. in wood, producing often the effect of a pattern.
also flesh, wood, stone, coal, metal, paper.

End of summary.
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The OED doesn't say it explicitly but hints that the meaning of grain as in the granular texture of wood end grain got extended to mean the longitudinal fibres as well.