corporate

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈkɔː.pər.ət/, US /ˈkɔːr.pɚ.ət/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English corporat,^[2] borrowed from Latin corporātus, the past participle of corporāre (“to make or fashion into a body; to furnish with a body; to make into a corpse, kill”),^[3][2] from corpus (“body”) (genitive corporis),^[3][2] from Proto-Indo-European *kwrep- (“body, form, appearance”).^[3][4] The Latin participle was also used as a noun, “member of a corporation”.^[3] It is related to corporation, corpse and corpus.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

“United into one body”: 1398 in the OED, now archaic.^[6] “Forming a corporation”: the early 15th century in Etymonline, in early use often of municipalities,^[3] 1425 in the Rolls of Parliament according to Barnhart,^[2] and 1512 in the OED and Merriam-Webster.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century it also meant “large of body, corpulent” (1509) and “of the body” (1586), senses now obsolete.^[6] Of any body of persons united in a community it is from about 1600,^[3] and “belonging to a corporation” from 1607.^[6] A corporation was a legal corporate body, the governing body of a town, from 1439.^[2][5] The verb corporate, “to form into a corporation”, is from 1531, now archaic.^[6][8]

Timeline

• 1398 – united into one body.^[6]
• 1425 – forming a corporation.^[2]
• 1439 – corporation.^[2]
• 1509 – corpulent.^[6]
• 1607 – of a corporation.^[6]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Of or relating to a corporation or to large companies: corporate profits.
2. Formed into a corporation; incorporated.
3. United or combined into one body; collective: corporate responsibility.

Word family

• corporately
• corporateness
• anticorporate
• concorporate
• corporatism
• corporatize
• corporator
• intercorporate

Related words

• corporation
• corpse
• corpus
• corporeal
• incorporate
• corps
• corpulent

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press