Back to all words

Corporation

3 stages from Latin to English.

Today it means a legal entity, such as a business or organization, authorized to act as a single person under the law

Where does the word "corporation" come from? It comes from Latin corpus, passing through Late Latin before entering English (1450s-1610s).

corpus→corporatio→corporation

Latin · ancient

"body; a united whole"

literally "body"; also used for a whole composed of united parts, a guild, or a political body

Late Latin · medieval

"the assumption of a body"

originally used for the incarnation of Christ taking on a body

English · 1450s-1610s

"a legally authorized entity, an artificial person created by law"

first meant persons united in a body for a shared purpose; by the 1610s narrowed to the legal sense of an artificial person created by law

Drag to pan · scroll to zoom