English
corpse
Corpse comes from Old French cors ‘body’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *krep-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krep-‘body’root as named
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*krépos‘body’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*korpos‘body’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorpus‘body’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400cors‘body’
- Englishearliest quotation 1865corpse
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krep-‘body’root as named
- Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*krépos‘body’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*korpos‘body’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorpus‘body’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400cors‘body’
- Englishearliest quotation 1865corpse
Earliest quotation: 1865, Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d: “I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, / And the…”
The story
The ⟨p⟩ was inserted due to the original Latin spelling.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *krep- ‘body’
through Proto-Italic *korpos ‘body’
incorporate, incorporation, 8 more
through Latin corpus ‘body’
corporation, corporate, corporal, corpus, corpulent, incorporeal, 10 more
through Old French cors ‘body’
Today it means
noun A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *krep- / corpse