Etymologically
Log in

corporate

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 21:12. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

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
  • 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