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Origin and history of corpse

corpse(n.)

late 13c., cors "body," from Old French cors "body; person; corpse; life" (9c.), from Latin corpus "body" (from PIE root *kwrep- "body, form, appearance"). The order of appearance of senses in English is "dead body" (13c.), "live body" (14c.); it also meant "body of citizens" (15c.), "band of knights" (mid-15c.), paralleling the sense evolution in French that yielded the doublet corps.

French restored the Latin -p- in 14c., and English followed 15c., but the pronunciation remained "corse" at first (and perhaps remains so with some speakers) and corse persisted as a parallel spelling. After the -p- began to be sounded (16c. in English), corse became archaic or poetic only. The terminal -e was rare before 19c.

Corpse-candle "candle used at ceremonial watchings of a corpse before burial," is attested from 1690s.

also from late 13c.

Entries linking to corpse

corps(n.)

"a part of an army expressly organized and having a head," 1704, from French corps d'armée (16c.), which apparently was picked up in English during Marlborough's campaigns, from French corps (old French cors) "body," from Latin corpus "body" (from PIE root *kwrep- "body, form, appearance"); see corpse, which is a doublet of this word, for the pronunciation.

The field corps, a tactical unit of a large army composed of two or more divisions, began with Napoleon. The word was extended to other organized groups under a leader, as in corps de ballet (1826), corps diplomatique (1796). Corpsman "enlisted medical auxiliary in the U.S. military" is from 1941.

corse(n.)

late 13c., "a dead body;" c. 1300, "a living body;" c. 1400, "the main part of anything," from Old French cors, from Latin corpus "body" (from PIE root *kwrep- "body, form, appearance"). Archaic from 16c.; compare corpse.

*kwrep-

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "body, form, appearance," probably a verbal root meaning "to appear."

It might form all or part of: corporal (adj.) "of or belonging to the body;" corporate; corporation; corporeal; corps; corpse; corpulence; corpulent; corpus; corpuscle; corsage; corse; corset; incorporeal; incorporate; leprechaun; midriff.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit krp- "form, body;" Avestan kerefsh "form, body;" Latin corpus "body" (living or dead); Old English hrif "belly," Old High German href "womb, belly, abdomen."

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    Trends of corpse

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    stiff
    Middle English stif, from Old English stif "rigid, inflexible, not easily bent," in physical senses often suggesting rigor mortis, from Proto-Germanic *stifaz "inflexible" (source also of Dutch stijf, Old Frisian stef, Old High German stif, German steif "stiff;" Old Norse stifla
    clay
    Old English clæg "stiff, sticky earth; clay," from Proto-Germanic *klaijaz (source also of Old High German kliwa "bran," German Kleie, Old Frisian klai, Old Saxon klei, Middle Dutch clei, Danish klæg "clay;" also Old English clæman, Old Norse kleima, Old High German kleiman "to c
    lich
    also litch, lych, "body, corpse," a southern England dialectal survival of Old English lic "body, dead body, corpse," from...Proto-Germanic *likow (source also of Old Frisian lik, Dutch lijk, Old High German lih, German Leiche "corpse, dead body...A litch-gate (also lych-gate) was a roofed gate to a churchyard under which a corpse was set down at a burial to await the...
    embalm
    late 14c., embaumen "to apply balm or ointment; to embalm a corpse," from Old French embaumer, earlier embausmer, "preserve...(a corpse) with spices," from assimilated form of en- "in" (see en- (1)) + baume "balm" (see balm) + verbal suffix -er....
    sepulchre
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    necropsy
    "post-mortem examination," 1839, from necro- "death, corpse" + opsis "a sight" (from PIE root *okw- "to see")....adjective and adverb — as necroscopic, necroscopical — which adds to the conveniences. — Its derivation is evident ( nekros, a corpse...
    narwhal
    spirally fluted tusk), 1650s, from Danish and Norwegian narhval, probably a metathesis of Old Norse nahvalr, literally "corpse-whale...," from na "corpse" (see need (n.)) + hvalr "whale" (see whale)....
    body
    Middle English bodi, from Old English bodig "trunk of a man or beast; the whole physical structure of a human or animal; material frame, material existence of a human; main or principal part of anything," related to Old High German botah, but otherwise of unknown origin. Not else
    corpus
    "matter of any kind," literally "a body," (plural corpora), late 14c., "body," from Latin corpus, literally "body" (see corporeal). The sense of "body of a person" (mid-15c. in English) and "collection of facts or things" (1727 in English) both were present in Latin. Also used in
    myth
    1830, from French mythe (1818) and directly from Modern Latin mythus, from Greek mythos "speech, thought, word, discourse, conversation; story, saga, tale, myth, anything delivered by word of mouth," a word of unknown origin. Beekes finds it "quite possibly Pre-Greek." Myths are

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