incorporation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English incorporacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Late Latin incorporātiō (“an embodying, embodiment”),^[5][3][6][7] a noun of action from incorporō (“to unite into one body, embody”),^[5][8] which is formed from in- and corporō (“to form into a body”),^[5][6] from corpus (“body”).^[9] Etymonline and Klein allow a route through Old French incorporacion,^[8][4] but the OED records French incorporation only from the 15th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The combining of substances into one mass; also the taking in of light or moisture: 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew de Glanville's encyclopedia.^[5][2][8]

Semantic evolution

From the blending of substances the word passed to the uniting of persons into one body: the forming of a guild or body politic is recorded from about 1460, in Fortescue,^[5][2] and Etymonline dates the sense to the early 15th century.^[8] In late Middle English the word could also mean the charter that created such a body, a sense that died out about 1600.^[2][5] From 1530 an incorporation was the incorporated society itself, a corporation.^[5] Johnson (1755) gave three senses: the union of ingredients in one mass, the formation of a body politic, and adoption or association.^[10] In 1874 philologists began to use the word for the combining of several parts of speech into one word, as in languages that insert the object between the stem and the ending of the verb.^[5][6] Etymonline quotes Ambrose Bierce's satirical definition of 1885: the uniting of several persons into one fiction called a corporation, so that they need no longer answer for their actions.^[8]

Timeline

• 1398 – the combining of substances; the absorption of light or moisture.^[5][2]
• c. 1460 – the forming of a corporation or body politic.^[5]
• 1530 – an incorporated society; a corporation.^[5]
• before 1600 – the charter of a corporation (obsolete by about 1605).^[5]
• 1642 – embodiment (rare).^[5]
• 1874 – in philology, the combining of several parts of speech in one word.^[5]
• 1966 – admission into another university.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of including or combining something into an existing whole, or the state of being so included: the incorporation of the suggestions into the final plan.^[3][5]
2. The forming of a legal corporation or company: the firm's incorporation in Delaware.^[3][5]
3. An incorporated body; a corporation.^[5][6]
4. In linguistics, the combination of two or more parts of speech, such as a verb and its object, in a single word.^[5][6]
5. (rare) Embodiment.^[5]
6. (obsolete) A charter creating a corporation.^[5][2]

Word family

• preincorporation
• reincorporation

Related words

• incorporate
• corporation
• corporate
• corporeal
• corpus
• corpse

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.