Archaic KJV Word
Corn Of Wheat
Modern equivalent: grain of wheat
What Was Lost
The incarnational metaphor at its most compressed. A single corn of wheat -- one tiny grain -- falls into the earth and dies, and from that death comes abundance. The smallness of a 'corn' (a single grain) made the miracle vivid: something this tiny, dying, produces this much life. Jesus was the corn of wheat.
Closest Survivor in Modern English
kernel (captures 'single grain' but lacks the warmth)
Peak Usage (1611)
KJV John 12:24 -- 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone'
Died ~1800
Both words shifted: 'corn' narrowed to maize, and 'corn of wheat' (meaning a single grain/kernel of wheat) became unreadable. American readers picture an ear of corn crossed with wheat.
What Replaced It
“grain of wheat”
Accurate but loses the intimacy of 'corn' as the universal word for the seed that feeds you
“kernel”
Scientific; corn-of-wheat was plain, earthy speech -- the little seed, the individual grain