cuerpo

Forms

cuerpo m (plural cuerpos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cuerpo, inherited from Latin corpus (“body”).^[2][3][4][1] Latin corpus was neuter and should first have given a singular ending in -s, with a plural from corpora; this is what Old French cors, Old Occitan cors and Catalan cos show.^[2] From the beginning, however, Spanish formed an analogical plural cuerpos, already in the Glosas Silenses beside corpora, and drew the singular cuerpo from it.^[2]

The same word is Portuguese corpo, Galician corpo, French corps and Italian corpo.^[5][6] cos goes back to the older form cors, general in the 13th and most of the 14th century.^[7] The learned corpus is its doublet.^[1][6]

De Vaan traces corpus to Proto-Italic *korp-os- and Proto-Indo-European *ḱrp-os- (“body”), with cognates in Old English hrif (“belly, womb”) and Old High German href (“lap”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Silenses, of the second half of the 10th century, have the plural cuerpos.^[2][3] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) a man who helps the Cid risks his goods, his eyes „e aun demás los cuerpos e las almas” “and moreover bodies and souls”.^[9] The poem also uses the word for “person, self”: perderé el cuerpo is “I shall die”.^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used cuerpo for the physical body, for life in the plural, for a corpse and, like a pronoun, for “person”;^[10] perder el cuerpo was “to die”, and en cuerpo was said of someone dressed without a cloak.^[11][10] Alfonso X's prose has it also for any material object and for stature: ualientes de cuerpos “strong of body”.^[12]

Covarrubias in 1611 distinguished a body of one kind (a man, a tree), one made of parts (a house, a ship) and one of separate members (a republic), and recorded un libro en tantos cuerpos for volumes and huir el cuerpo “to dodge”.^[13] Autoridades defined it as whatever has parts and can be touched, and also the part of a garment that covers the trunk.^[14] The 1884 edition added the trunk as opposed to the limbs.^[15] Modern senses include a body of people, such as an army corps or police force, and the length of a horse in a race.^[4][1]

In Argentina the derivative cuerpear means “to dodge”.^[2] In Chile cuerpo malo is a hangover.^[16]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – the Glosas Silenses have the plural cuerpos.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has the singular cuerpo and the phrase perder el cuerpo “to die”.^[2][10]
• 1201 – the Disputa del alma y el cuerpo has el cuerpo de un muerto “a dead man's body”.^[9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for any material object.^[12]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records huir el cuerpo and the sense “volume”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense “trunk”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A body: any thing of limited extent perceptible by the senses.^[4][1]
2. The body of a living being, its organs and systems as a whole.^[4][1]
3. The trunk or torso, as opposed to the head and limbs.^[4][1]
4. Figure, build: Tiene buen cuerpo para nadar.^[4]
5. The part of a garment that covers the trunk, a bodice.^[4]
6. A volume of a work; the main text of a book, without its index and front matter.^[4]
7. A collection of laws.^[4]
8. Thickness, size; of a liquid, density or body.^[4][1]
9. The length of a horse, in racing: Ganó por medio cuerpo.^[4]
10. A dead body, corpse.^[4][1]
11. A body of people: a community, association or corps: el cuerpo de bomberos.^[4][1]

Word family

• cuerpear
• corpachón
• corpanchón
• corpudo
• acuerpar

Related words

• corpecico
• corporación
• corporal
• corpóreo
• corpus
• corpulento
• incorporar
• corsé
• corpiño
• Portuguese corpo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 276
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuerpo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cuerpo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. corpus
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1913
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 981
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. corpus
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cuerpo
10. ^ a b c d Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. cuerpo
11. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 156
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. cuerpo
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 550
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 687
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 318
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cuerpo
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. cuerpo