Forms: 3–7 cors, 4– corse; also 4–5 korse, sb. coors, cours, coursse, 4–6 course, corss(e, 5–6 corce, 6–8 coarse. [ME. cors, a. OF. cors (11–13th c.) = Pr. cors:—L. corpus body. In the 14th c. the Fr. was refashioned after L. as corps (p mute), and that spelling also passed into Eng., giving eventually the modern CORPSE, q.v. Corps was at first identical in pronunciation with cors, but by 1500 the p appears to have been sometimes pronounced, and this became at length the prevalent spelling and pronunciation. But cors, from the 16th c. spelt corse, never became obsolete, and still remains as a somewhat archaic and poetic form of corpse, which is itself moreover often pronounced without the p in reading.]
† 1. A living body; = CORPSE 1. Obs.
[1292. Britton, I. xv. Rap est une felonie de homme de violence fete au cors de femme.]
a. 1300. Cursor M., 19356 (Edin.). Þan wiþ suaipis þai þaim suang, and gremli on þair corsis dange.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Manciple’s T., Prol. 67. Liftyng up his hevy dronken cors [v.r. corps].
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 199. Hire semly cors for to embrace.
1586. Sidney, Sonnets (1622), 491.
| Euen as the flye, which to the flame doth goe, | |
| Pleas’d with the light, that his small corse doth burne. |
† b. transf. Person; a man’s self. Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 683. How myȝt I hyde myn hert fro Habraham þe trwe, Þat I ne dyscouered to his corse my counsayle so dere.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxviii. 179. Judas. Qwhat man som I kys, Þat corse schall ye kyll.
2. A dead body; = CORPSE 2. Now chiefly poet. or arch. a. with epithet dead, lifeless, etc.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 11975 (Gött.). On þe ded cors þar it lay wid fote he smat.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VI. 624. Dede corssys that lay wnputt in graiff.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xi. 48. The sencelesse corse appointed for the grave.
1702. Rowe, Tamerl., I. i. 429. I shall see thee born at Evening back A breathless Coarse.
c. 1810. C. Wolfe, Burial Sir J. Moore. As his corse to the rampart we hurried.
1815. Scott, Ld. of Isles, VI. xv. Drops to the plain the lifeless corse.
1850. Seward, in W. Phillips, Speeches (1863), xiv. 295. The dead corse, in complete steel, will haunt your legislative halls.
b. simply.
c. 1250. Serm., in O. E. Misc., 28. Mirre … be þo biternesse defendet þet Cors þet is mide i-smered.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pard. T., 337. They herde a belle clynke Biforn a cors [3 MSS. corps] was caried to his graue.
c. 1489. Caxton, Blanchardyn, vii. (1890), 30. For to gyue the corsses a sepulture.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. ii. 36. Villaines, set downe the Coarse, or by S. Paul, Ile make a Coarse of him that disobeyes.
1651. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. IV. iii. 146. Some … cannot endure a room where a coarse hath been.
1735. Somerville, Chase, II. 286. Stretch’d on the Ground she lies A mangled Coarse.
1821. Byron, Cain, III. i. I must watch my husband’s corse.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, II. xxiv. 388. Yet seek we not to steal away the corse Of valiant Hector.
† c. pl. cors = corses. Obs.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 154. He lette þe stude halwe, for þe gode cors þat þer were.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 2729. He leet taken alle the cors Off the men and off the hors.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 409. They bereþ forþ cors wiþ sorwe grete.
† 3. transf. Of things: The ‘body’ or substance of a thing; the main bulk; also, a body or material substance.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 85. Ffor vynes land to cheese eke must thou yeme In coors [corpore] and in colour solute and rare. Ibid., III. 335. Ffor, as he saithe, the cors [of a vine] I delve in grounde, The rootes wol abounde and alle confounde. Ibid., XI. 102. Eke everie drie or roton cors remeve.
1506. Guylforde, Pylgr. (1851), 76. They thought … that the cors of the galye shulde in lykewyse haue fallen to the rok at the next surge.
† 4. ? A corslet or corset. Obs.
1507. May & June, 87 in Hazl., E. P. P., II. 124. They spared not cors, armyt, nor yet vambrace.
† 5. A ribbon or band of silk (or other material), serving as a ground for ornamentation with metal-work or embroidery, and used as a girdle, garter, etc. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 94. Coors of sylke, or threde [1499 corce], textum. Ibid., 451. Seynt, or cors of a gyrdylle, textum.
1454–6. Churchw. Acc. St. Andrew’s, East Cheap (in Brit. Mag., XXXI. 243). Paied for Clapses and Corses of the grete Boke iiijs. iijd.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 33. A long grene coors of silke harneysid with silvir.
1503. Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 21. Silk … in Ribbands, Laces, Girdles, Corses, Calles, Corses of Tissues, or Points.
1530. Palsgr., 209/1. Corse of a gyrdell, tissu.
1552. Huloet, Corse and broade gyrth, wherwyth maydens were wont to be gyrte vnder theyr pappes, perizonium.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Cinnilegium, a girdle which a bride weareth: a corse.
† 6. The cover of a chariot. Obs.
1552. Huloet, Corse of a chariot or horse lytter couered wyth bayles or bordes, tympanum.
1565–73. Cooper, Thesaurus, Tympanum, the couer or corse or a chariote.
† 7. Arch. (cors) A square shaft or slender pier supporting a pinnacle, figure, or other terminal; sometimes surmounting a buttress, sometimes rising from the ground; placed with its sides parallel to, or diagonally against a wall, but never with the effect of a buttress or support.
1478. Botoner, Itin., Bristol, lf. 129 (ed. Nasmith 220). [In Porch of St. Stephen’s Ch.] A cors wythoute, A casement, [etc.]. Ibid., lf. 197 (ed. N. 269). [In West Door of Radclyff Ch.] A cors wythoute forth … A cors wyth an arch buttant. A boterasse. A body boterasse.
1505. Indenture St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, in R. Willis, Archit. Nom., 71. [To have] arcebocens [-botens] and crestes, and corses with the king’s beastes standing on them to bear the fanes on the outside of the said choir.
1844. R. Willis, Archit. Nom., 71. These corses [at Windsor] are shown by the actual building to be the shafts of the pinnacles, which in this instance … have square capitals for the reception of the beasts. Ibid., 72. In the accounts of these [wax herces] bodies and botraces are enumerated; and it is evident that body and cors are identical terms.
b. See quot. (App. never in English use.)
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl. [from Daviler, Cours d’Archit. (1691), II. 510: also in Dict. de Trévoux and Littré], Corps, in architecture … any part that projects or advances beyond the naked of a wall, and which serves as a ground for some decoration, or the like. So 1811 Nicholson, Dict. Arch.
8. attrib. and Comb. (from 5), as † corse-girdle, † -weaver.
1501. Bury Wills (Camden), 84. To Alys my doughther on cors gyrdyll of cooloor blew, harnest wt syluer.
1530. Palsgr., 209/1. Corse weaver, tissutier.
1552. Huloet, Corse gyrdle, cæstus, cinniligium.
