Word Origin Atlas

Exact historical dictionary sense

Corporate in Webster's 1913 dictionary

The 1913 record labels corporate as adjective. Its source-bounded etymology and selected historical definition appear below.

WEBSTER 1913adjective
Corporate

[L. corporatus, p. p. of corporare to shape into a body, fr. corpus body. See Corpse.]

Cross-verified historical sense
The source text may be outdated. The page preserves that historical boundary.
Cross-verified 1913 record
Headwordcorporate
Part of speechadjective
Historical etymology[L. corporatus, p. p. of corporare to shape into a body, fr. corpus body. See Corpse.]
Selected historical definitionFormed into a body by legal enactment; united in an association, and endowed by law with the rights and liabilities of an individual; incorporated; as, a corporate town.
Signed record IDwebster1913-corporate-adjective-0a5769cc0b1e
Source locatorCIDE.C, paragraph 18022; Gutenberg eBook 661
Edition-scoped answerNot earliest-attestation proofNot modern consensus
Independent historical textProject Gutenberg section 661Signed structural record sourceGNU GCIDE 0.54 archive
Quick answer

In Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), "corporate" is labeled adjective. Its etymology is recorded as: "[L. corporatus, p. p. of corporare to shape into a body, fr. corpus body. See Corpse.]" The selected historical definition says: "Formed into a body by legal enactment; united in an association, and endowed by law with the rights and liabilities of an individual; incorporated; as, a corporate town."

Project Gutenberg Webster 1913 plus signed GNU GCIDE 0.54 Exact cross-verified historical record reviewed 2026-10-04

What this answer proves

One named sense in one historical dictionary edition.

The answer reports the selected headword, part of speech, etymology, definition, and source locator as transcribed in the cross-verified 1913 record.

Evidence boundaryIt does not establish the earliest attestation or a complete borrowing chain.It does not claim current scholarly consensus or a modern dictionary definition.Historical dictionary text may be obsolete, incomplete, inaccurate, or offensive by modern standards.

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