Etymograph

English

corporate

Corporate comes from Middle English corporat(e), from Latin corporātus ‘made into a body’, past participle of corporō, from corpus ‘body’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krep-1‘body’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*korpos1‘body’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorpus1
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorporō2‘to make into a body’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorporātus2‘made into a body’perfect passive participle of corporō
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500corporat(e)2‘corporeal’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1605–1608corporate2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin corporo
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English corporate
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, The Life of Tymon of Athens: “They answer in a joint and corporate voice.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krep-Wiktionary, Latin corporo‘body’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*korposWiktionary, Latin corporo‘body’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorpusWiktionary, Latin corporo
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorporōWiktionary, English corporate‘to make into a body’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcorporātusWiktionary, English corporate‘made into a body’perfect passive participle of corporō
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500corporat(e)Wiktionary, English corporate‘corporeal’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1605–1608corporateWiktionary, English corporate. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, The Life of Tymon of Athens: “They answer in a joint and corporate voice.”

first attested first attested in 1429 (as stated in Wiktionary’s etymology)

The story

The adjective is first attested in 1429, the noun in 1849; from Middle English corporat(e) (“(if a true adjective) corporeal, physical, embodied; (participle/participial adjective) incorporated; corporated, constituted as a legal corporation”, used as the past participle of corporaten), from Latin corporātus, perfect passive participle of corporō (‘to make into a body’) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from corpus (“body”, oblique stem in corp-) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with corporate, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *krep- ‘body’

  • riff ← *rif ← hrif ← *hrif ← *hrefaz

through Proto-Italic *korpos ‘body’

through Latin corpus

through Latin corporō ‘to make into a body’

  • incorporation ← incorporacioun ← incorporacion ← incorporatio ← incorporō

29 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Of or relating to an institution; institutional.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “corporate”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin corporo. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *krep- / corporate