A flowering weed with red or pink petals commonly found in cornfields, a plant that competes with corn for resources and was historically very common.
Compound of corn + cockle, from Old English coccel. Cockle refers to a weedy plant; corncockle appeared in English by medieval times as a notorious field weed.
Corncockle seeds were so abundant in grain that bread bakers feared grinding them into flour—they're actually toxic! This single plant shaped medieval grain cleaning technology and food safety practices.
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