Added 9 October 2026
corpse
/kɔːps/ noun
In Latin: cadāver, mortuus Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about corpse at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
Origin
From Middle English, from earlier corse, from Old French cors, from Latin corpus (“body”). Displaced native English likam and lich. The ⟨p⟩ was inserted due to the original Latin spelling. Doublet of corps and corpus, and distantly of riff (via Proto-Indo-European). The verb sense derives from the notion of being unable to control laughter while acting as dead body.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)