corporation

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˌkɔː.pərˈeɪ.ʃən/, US /ˌkɔːr.pəˈreɪ.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English corporacioun,^[2] from Anglo-Latin use of Late Latin corporationem (“assumption of a body”), used of the Incarnation,^[2][3][4] a noun of action from the past participle stem of Latin corporare “to embody, make into a body”,^[2][3] from corpus (“body; a whole of united parts, a guild”) (genitive corporis),^[2] from Proto-Indo-European *kwrep- (“body, form”).^[2] It is related to corporate, corpse and corps.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of incorporating, or the condition of being incorporated: 1439 in the OED, now obsolete.^[5][6] Persons united in a body for a purpose: the mid-15th century in Etymonline,^[2] 1534 in the OED.^[5]

Semantic evolution

An incorporated company of traders, a guild, is from 1530.^[5] The legal sense, a body authorized to act as a single individual, an “artificial person” created by law, is from 1611,^[5] the 1610s in Etymonline, applied both to municipal governments and to modern business companies.^[2] The civic authorities of a town are from before 1734.^[5] Johnson in 1755 defined a corporation as a body politic authorized by royal charter to have a common seal and officers.^[7] Colloquially, a large belly is from 1753.^[5]

Timeline

• 1439 – incorporation.^[5]
• 1530 – a company of traders.^[5]
• 1534 – a body of persons.^[5]
• 1611 – a legal corporation.^[5]
• a. 1734 – a town corporation.^[5]
• 1753 – a paunch.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A body, such as a company, given a charter that recognizes it in law as a separate entity with its own rights and liabilities.
2. Such a body formed for government, as the authorities of a city.
3. A group of people combined into or acting as one body.
4. (informal) A paunch.

Word family

• corporational
• megacorporation
• Crown corporation
• municipal corporation

Related words

• corporate
• incorporate
• corporal
• corpse
• corps
• corpus

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.