corpulent

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English corpulent, also corpolent,^[2] borrowed from Old French corpulent (“stout, fat”)^[3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin corpulentus (“fleshy, fat, large”),^[2][6][7][8] formed from corpus (“body”) and -ulentus (“full of”).^[3][4] The Latin noun is from Proto-Indo-European *kwrep- (“body, form, appearance”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nature of a physical body; solid, dense: 1398, in John Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum, which speaks of "corpulent substaunce".^[5][2][3] This sense, not fatness, comes first in the record.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

The first English sense was close to corporeal: having body or substance, and so dense or gross.^[5][2] It lasted until about 1650.^[5] The sense "large or bulky of body, fat" is recorded from about 1440, in the Gesta Romanorum, and it is the one that survived.^[5][9] Johnson (1755) defines the word as "fleshy; bulky; having great bodily bulk", and quotes Ben Jonson's figure of a style that grows "fat and corpulent".^[10] The word could be dangerous in print: Leigh Hunt was sent to prison for two years for calling the Prince Regent corpulent in 1812.^[4] The noun corpulence followed the same path, from "carnal nature" before 1500 to "stoutness" in 1581.^[3]

Timeline

• 1398 – of a material body; solid, dense (obsolete by 1650).^[5][2]
• c. 1440 – large or bulky of body; fat.^[5]
• before 1620 – corporeal, material (obsolete by 1649).^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having a large, heavy body; fat or obese: a corpulent innkeeper.^[9][6][5]
2. Large and massive, of a thing: a corpulent suitcase.^[6]
3. (archaic) Corporeal, material.^[6][5][8]
4. (obsolete, 1398–1650) Solid or dense, like a physical body.^[5][2][8]

Word family

• corpulently
• corpulency
• uncorpulent

Related words

• corpulence
• corpus
• corps
• corpse
• corporal
• corporeal

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.