Also 6 -acyon, 6–7 -cion. [ad. L. corporātiōn-em (Tertullian), n. of action f. corporā-re to embody; in med. (Anglo)L. used in sense 2 below. Also in mod.F.: see Littré.]
† 1. The action of incorporating; the condition of being incorporated. Obs.
1439. Rotul. Parl., V. 9/1, 18 Hen. VI., c. 20. As touchyng the Corporation of the Toune of Plymouth.
1530. Palsgr., 209/1. Corporation, corporation.
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 42. Thother company called ‘the Surgeons,’ be not incorporate, nor have anny maner of corporation.
1542. in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. l. 376. An act … for the union and corporation of small and exile benefices.
2. A number of persons united, or regarded as united, in one body; a body of persons.
1534. More, On the Passion, Wks. 1348/2. He [Christ] doth … incorporate all christen folke and hys owne bodye together in one corporacyon mistical.
1569. Golding, Heminges Post., Ded. 14. The whole Churche … the whole corporation of those that are registered in the booke of life.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxix. § 14. Some to appertain unto several corporations or companies of men.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., II. (1843), 60/1. The most odious … projects … framed, and executed, by almost a corporation of that religion.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, III. iv. 324. David [was] a grand preserver of them [Nethinims], who first made them a Corporation.
3. Law. A body corporate legally authorized to act as a single individual; an artificial person created by royal charter, prescription, or act of the legislature, and having authority to preserve certain rights in perpetual succession.
A corporation may be either aggregate, comprising many individuals, as the mayor and burgesses of a town, etc., or sole, consisting of only one person and his successors, as a king, bishop, or parson of a parish. According to their nature, corporations are termed civil, ecclesiastical (U.S. religious), eleemosynary, municipal, etc.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., V. iv. 23. If there be any, bee hee priuate person, or be it corporation.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 483. The Corporation or Body politike of the Citizens of Capua.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 177, ¶ 10. Some fragment of antiquity, as the seal of an antient corporation.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 469. Corporations aggregate consist of many persons united together into one society, and are kept up by a perpetual succession of members so as to continue for ever…. Corporations sole consist of one person only and his successors.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), V. 150. Corporations aggregate cannot levy fines.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, iv. What we should term a Company of Proprietors, but what they call in America a Corporation.
1856. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., xiv. (1858), 446. The ‘Santa Casa’ is spoken of by them as a living person, a corporation sole on which the whole city depends.
1875. Poste, Gaius, I. Comm. (ed. 2), 154. Some Universities have a visible existence in a number of individual members, and are then called Corporations.
b. Frequently used in the titles of incorporated companies, e.g., the London Assurance Corporation, Irish Land C., Oriental Bank C., Peruvian C., etc.
4. An incorporated company of traders having (originally) the monopoly and control of their particular trade in a borough or other place; a trade-guild, a city ‘company.’ (Now so called only in legal or formal language.)
1530. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 87. Ther is a corporacyon made by the auctorite of the Mayre amongst fischmongers wtyn the … towne.
1634. Rainbow, Labour (1635), 40. The greatest of our Common-wealth have inrolled their names into the protection of some Corporation in this City.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 4443/3. The several Corporations, or City Companies, marched from their respective Halls.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., vii. The whole corporations of weavers in silk and woollen.
5. spec. The municipal corporation; the civic authorities of a borough or incorporated town or city; the mayor, aldermen and councillors. (A leading current use.)
a. 1734. North, Exam., III. viii. § 34. 607. The Lord Mayor being Head of the Corporation.
1829. Southey, Pilgr. Compostella, IV. The Corporation A fund for their keep supplied.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 629. A branch of the Corporation of the City of London.
6. The body; the abdomen; esp. when large and prominent. colloq. and vulgar.
1753. Smollett, Cnt. Fathom (1813), I. 156. Sirrah! my corporation is made up of good wholesome English fat.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar Tongue, s.v., He has a glorious corporation.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xvi. 242. Looming large in full canonicals … with the dignity of an ample corporation.
1870. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. xvii. 10. Eglon was a notable instance that a well-fed corporation is no security to life.
7. attrib. and Comb., as corporation land, oath, seal, etc.; Corporation Act, the act of 1661, requiring all persons holding municipal offices to acknowledge the royal supremacy, to abjure resistance to the king, and to subscribe a declaration against the Solemn League and Covenant, and making ineligible for office all persons who had not within a year partaken of the communion as administered by the Church of England.
1651. Baxter, Inf. Bapt., 318. When all Burgesses … are entered into a Corporation by the Corporation Oath or Covenant.
1672. Essex Papers (Camden), I. 32. This very thing of Corporacion Lands.
1714. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1886), II. 78. The Corporation Seale.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. x. 133. The Corporation spirit has never prevailed among them.
1777. Sheridan, Sch. Scand., III. iii. All the family race-cups and corporation-bowls!
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xi. A bill repealing the Corporation Act, which had been passed by the Cavalier Parliament.
Hence (nonce-wds.) Corporational a., of or belonging to a corporation; Corporationer, a member of a corporation; Corporationism, the system or principle of corporate action.
1836. T. Hook, G. Gurney, III. 238. Among all the soldier-officers, and mayors and corporationers.
1866. Dickens, Lett., 18 Jan. I sat pining under the imbecility of constitutional and corporational idiots.
1871. Daily Patriot, 11 March, 2/2. Individuals are sinking into inconsequence before the corporationism which is rapidly destroying self-defence.
1883. Advance (Chicago), 16 Aug. Individualism against corporationism.
