corporal

corporal¹ altar cloth

Etymology

The altar cloth is borrowed from Medieval Latin corporāle, in full corporāle pallium or corporālis palla,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} the neuter of Latin corporālis (“bodily, of the body”) used as a noun,^[8][4][1] from corpus (“body”).^[3][8][1] It was named from the doctrine that the consecrated bread is, or represents, the body of Christ.^[1][8][5] The word may also have come through Old French corporal, which the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records both for a eucharistic vestment and for the linen cloth of the mass;^{[8][9][10][11]} a by-form Middle English corporas is also found.^[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ancient eucharistic vestment, in the Old English Canons of Edgar; this sense was last recorded in 1660.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense of the cloth on which the consecrated bread and wine are placed during mass, and with which they are covered, is recorded from 1381, in a gild record listing two corporalles.^[3][9][12] The MED also has the corporal case, in which the cloth was kept (1449).^[9] The Shorter Oxford notes that the cloth is now square.^[4]

Timeline

• Old English – an ancient eucharistic vestment (obsolete by 1660).^[3][4]
• 1381 – the communion cloth.^[3][9]
• 1449 – corporal case, the case for the cloth.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A linen cloth on which the consecrated bread and wine are placed during the Eucharist, or with which they are covered; a communion cloth.^[8][3][5][6]

corporal² bodily

Etymology

The adjective is inherited from Middle English corporal, also corporel,^[9][8] borrowed from Old French corporal (“of the body, physical, strong”), later corporel, now French corporel,^{[3][12][4][6]} recorded in Anglo-Norman from about 1165–80,^[11] and partly directly from Latin corporālis (“of the body”),^[12][9][5] formed from corpus (“body”) and the suffix -ālis.^[3][13] Barnhart calls the Old French word a learned borrowing from Latin.^[14] The AHD and Etymonline trace corpus to Proto-Indo-European *kwrep- (“body, form, appearance”).^[15][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart and Etymonline find it first about 1390, as corporel, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, meaning "material, physical; secular, temporal"; the sense "of the body" follows before 1400 in Chaucer's translation of the Roman de la Rose.^[14][12] The Romaunt of the Rose is also the OED's and the MED's first quotation.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster's “Book of Word Histories” notes two chief senses, "relating to the body" and the perhaps slightly earlier "relating to the physical or material world"; the latter has been taken over by corporeal, from another Latin adjective, corporeus.^[1] Several senses died out: "having a body" (1471–1645), "large of body" (about 1475–1630) and "material, physical" (about 1520–1715).^[3] The phrases lasted: the corporal oath, an oath confirmed by touching a sacred object, is already in the MED and in the OED from 1534;^[3][9] corporal punishment, at first including death, mutilation, branding and the pillory as opposed to a fine, from 1581;^[3][12] and the seven corporal works of mercy from about 1600.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the word as "relating to the body; belonging to the body".^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – corporel, material, secular, in Chaucer.^[14][12]
• c. 1400 – of the human body, bodily.^[3][12]
• 1471 – having a body (obsolete by 1645).^[3]
• c. 1475 – large of body (obsolete by 1630).^[3]
• 1534 – corporal oath.^[3]
• 1581 – corporal punishment.^[3][12]
• c. 1600 – corporal works of mercy.^[3]
• 1651 – personal, in Hobbes.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or affecting the body; bodily, physical: corporal punishment.^[5][8][3]
2. Of the body as distinct from the head and limbs.^[8]
3. (obsolete) Having a body; material, corporeal.^[5][8][3]

Word family

• corporality
• corporally
• corporal punishment

corporal³ military rank

Etymology

The military rank is borrowed from Middle French corporal,^{[3][8][14][1]} a 16th-century variant of caporal, from Italian caporale,^{[3][8][14][12][17]} which most dictionaries derive from capo (“head, chief”), from Latin caput (“head”),^{[8][14][12][17][15]} with the ending perhaps modelled on pairs such as tempo and temporale.^[8] The “-or-” of the French form is then put down to the influence of corps (“body”), the corporal being in charge of a body of troops.^{[8][14][12][17][6]} The OED takes the opposite view: the form with “-or-” is old, since Du Cange quotes a letter of 1405 in which the Venetians call a captain corporalis, so it derives the word from corpo and Latin corpus, a body of troops, with later influence from capo;^[3][4][18] Weekley also derives it from corpus.^[7] Merriam-Webster's “Book of Word Histories” sets out both theories and finds it virtually impossible to decide between them.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A non-commissioned officer ranking below a sergeant: 1579, in L. and T. Digges's Stratioticos.^[3][14][8]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries a corporal of the field was a superior officer who assisted the sergeant-major (1591–1633).^[3] At sea the corporal was a petty officer who taught the sailors the use of small arms (1626).^[3] In the United States the word has also named a freshwater fish, the fallfish (1888), and the head man of a cattle party (1920),^[3] and Merriam-Webster records an assistant to a precinct police sergeant.^[8]

Timeline

• 1579 – a non-commissioned officer below a sergeant.^[3][14][8]
• 1591 – corporal of the field (obsolete by 1633).^[3]
• 1626 – a ship's petty officer.^[3]
• 1888 – United States, the fallfish.^[3]
• 1920 – United States, the head man of a cattle party.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A non-commissioned officer ranking below a sergeant and above a private first class in an army, or above a lance corporal in the Marines.^[8][3][5]
2. (United States) The fallfish, a North American freshwater fish.^[8][3]
3. (United States) An assistant to a police sergeant in a precinct.^[8]

Word family

• lance corporal
• corporal's guard