Etymologically
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corps

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kɔʁ/[1]

Forms

corps m (invariable)[1] Old French cors (subject and object case alike), rarely cor, corps from the 12th century, the ⟨p⟩ restored after Latin.[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cors, inherited from Latin corpus (“body”) (genitive “corporis”).[4][5][6][7] Rey calls the Latin word one of an obscure group, perhaps an extension of a stem “*krp-” found in Indo-Iranian;[5] Littré, after Burnouf, compared Avestan “kehrpa” “body”.[3] The ⟨p⟩ is not pronounced; it was put back in writing to recall the Latin.[1][2] The learned corpus is a doublet.[1]

Cognate with Italian corpo, Old Occitan cors, Catalan cos, Spanish cuerpo, Portuguese corpo and Romanian corp.[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Sequence of Saint Eulalia (about 881) says of the saint Bel avret corps, bellezour anima “she had a fair body, a fairer soul”: the body as opposed to the soul.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Following Latin corpus, the word named from the start the living body, especially in contrast with the soul (corps et âme), and the dead body (Saint Alexis, about 1050), where it served to avoid cadavre.[5][4] By taking the whole for the part it meant the trunk (about 1100, Roland) and the part of a garment covering the trunk (Wace, about 1170), whence the derivatives corsage and corset;[4][5] by taking the part for the whole it meant “person, individual” (about 1050), as in Old French mes cors “I myself”, garde du corps (1549), prise de corps (1283), à son corps défendant (1613, seur son cors deffendant, about 1220) and à corps perdu (1560, Ronsard).[5][4][10][6] Cors a cors “at close quarters” is in the Couronnement de Louis (first half of the 12th century), and the noun corps à corps in Courteline (1888).[4]

From about 1270 (Jean de Meun's cors celestre) it was used of any material object, and it became a term of anatomy (corps estrange, Paré, 1561), physics and chemistry (corps simple, 1585).[4][5] It also named the main part of a thing (the corps de la maison, 13th century, corps de logis, 1590, corps d'une lettre in printing, 1528) and, after classical Latin, an organised body of people: corps de ville (1304).[4][6] Corps d'armée dates from the 16th century.[11] In law corps du délit (1824, corps de délit, 1754) renders Latin corpus delicti.[5] English corps was borrowed in 1704 from corps d'armée, during Marlborough's campaigns.[11]

Timeline

  • c. 881 – Corps in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.[4]
  • c. 1050 – “Corpse” and “person”, in Saint Alexis.[4]
  • c. 1100 – “Trunk” in the Chanson de Roland.[4]
  • c. 1270 – Cors celestre in Jean de Meun.[4]
  • 1304 – Cors de ville.[4]
  • 1549 – Garde du corps.[4]
  • 1560 – À corps perdu in Ronsard.[10]
  • 1585 – Corps simple.[4]
  • 1704 – English corps.[11]
  • 1824 – Corps du délit in Balzac.[4]
  • 1888 – Un corps à corps.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The body (of a person or an animal): le corps humain, les parties du corps.[8][12]
  2. A dead body, corpse: la levée du corps.[12][1]
  3. The trunk, as opposed to the limbs and head.[12][2]
  4. A person: un drôle de corps, garde du corps: bodyguard, à son corps défendant: reluctantly, à corps perdu: headlong.[5][4]
  5. An object, substance: corps céleste, corps étranger, corps simple.[8][4]
  6. The main part of something: corps de bâtiment, the body of a text, (printing) the body size of a typeface.[4][1]
  7. Body, consistency: un vin qui a du corps, prendre corps: to take shape.[5][2]
  8. A body of people, a profession, (military) a corps: corps d'armée, corps diplomatique.[1][12]
  9. (algebra) A field.[1]

Word family

  • corser
  • corset
  • corsé
  • corsetier
  • corselet
  • arrière-corps
  • avant-corps
  • corsage
  • garde-corps
  • justaucorps
  • anticorps
  • corpus
  • corpulent
  • English corps
  • English corpse

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1212b
  8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)