body

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈbɒd.i/, US /ˈbɑː.di/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English bodi, inherited from Old English bodig,^[2][3][4] earlier bodæi or bodeg.^[3] It corresponds to Old High German botah,^[2][5][6] but has no relatives outside West Germanic,^[3] and its origin is unknown.^[2][6][7] The German word died out and was replaced by Leib (originally “life”) and Körper, from Latin.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The trunk or the whole physical frame of a person or animal; also the main part of anything: Old English bodæi, about 700.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Body was set against the soul from at least the mid-13th century.^[2] It meant “corpse” from about 1200^[2] and “a person” by about 1300,^[2] and in Middle English it was extended to matter in general, as in heavenly body (late 14th century).^[2] From the main part of a thing came the body of a vehicle (1520s), and it was used of the part of a dress covering the trunk from the 1580s.^[2] A group of people taken together is a body from the 1590s, and the main part of a document from the 1660s.^[2] Body politic (late 15th century) keeps the French word order.^[2] Over my dead body is recorded from 1833.^[8] Modern compounds include body image (1934), body language (1967) and body count (1968, from the Vietnam War).^[2] The verb “to give a body to” is from about 1449.^[8] Bodily dates from about 1300.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 700 – Old English bodæi.^[3]
• c. 1200 – a corpse.^[2]
• c. 1300 – a person, and bodily.^[2][3]
• late 14th century – heavenly body.^[2]
• late 15th century – body politic.^[2]
• 1520s – the body of a vehicle.^[2]
• 1590s – a group of people.^[2]
• 1833 – over my dead body.^[8]
• 1967 – body language.^[2]
• 1968 – body count.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The whole physical structure of a person or animal.
2. A dead body; a corpse.
3. The trunk or torso.
4. A person: a nice old body.
5. A group regarded as a unit: a governing body.
6. The main or central part of something, such as a vehicle or a piece of writing.
7. A mass of matter: a heavenly body.

Verb

1. To give a body or shape to; usually body forth.

Related words

• bodice
• embody
• busybody
• anybody
• somebody

Usage notes

RHWU compares body, the physical frame of a person or animal, alive or dead, with carcass, used of a dead animal (or jokingly of a person), corpse, used only of a dead human, and cadaver, a dead body, especially one used for dissection.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin