▪ I. corporate, n.
Brit. /ˈkɔːp(ə)rət/, U.S. /ˈkɔrp(ə)rət/
[‹ corporate.]
1. Business. † a. = corporation n. 4. Obs. rare.
| 1849 Sci. Amer. 9 June 299/4 In the old corporates, the journeyman's vote was equally potent with his employer's. |
b. A large company, a corporation.
| 1945 G. Terborgh Bogey of Econ. Maturity ix. 143, 56 corporations offered evidence in the t.n.e.c. hearings... [Note] Included are corporates in mining and manufacturing, transportation and public utilities, trade, service, and construction. 1973 Jrnl. Commerce 6 Apr. 2/5 Sirmac will meet Friday night in New York to discuss whether the society has a future and what should be done with its standard for certification of corporates' asset protection and risk management programs. 1983 S. Box Power, Crime & Mystification ii. 55 Cutting costs, not making unnecessary repairs and so on, all with a eye on improving the corporate's profitable position. 1990 Games Rev. Jan. 19/1 The job is to break into a research installation of a rival corporate. 2000D. Hamilton in C. Newland & K. Sesay IC3 427 Today they want our children to learn ebonics in school. The corporates have it in their music/movies etc. |
2. U.S. Finance. In pl. Securities or bonds issued by a private company (as opposed to those issued by a government, etc.). Cf. government n. 7c.
| 1922 Rev. Econ. Statistics 4 279 (table) Security Issues..Corporate... [Note] Includes foreign corporates. 1949 Jrnl. Business Univ. Chicago 22 48/1 In deep depression government bonds may decline sympathetically with corporates. 1968 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 76 813 The interest rate on long-term government bonds and on corporates ranged..around 1.10 per cent. 1989 Wall St. Computer Rev. June 36/1 Bond Yield Calculator also supports U.S. Treasury bonds, agency paper, corporates, zeros, Euros, U.K. and Japanese securities. |
▪ II. corporate, ppl. a.
(ˈkɔːpərət)
[ad. L. corporāt-us, pa. pple. of corporāre: see next.]
A. as pa. pple.
1. United into one body. arch.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. iv. iii. (1495) 81 What is drawen and is lyke therto is corporate and onyd therto. 1850 Blackie æschylus I. 123 Four several functions corporate in one. |
† 2. Embodied. Obs.
| a 1555 Latimer Serm. & Rem. (1845) 333 It were too long to tell you..how long it were ere I could forsake such folly, it was so corporate in me. |
B. adj.
† 1. Large of body; corpulent. Obs.
| 1509 Barclay Shyp of Folys (1570) 153 His body is so great and corporate. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe iii. vi. 62 Leane men have more blod, corporat men have more fleshe. |
† 2. Pertaining to or affecting the body. Obs.
| 1586 J. Ferne Blaz. Gentrie 289 Goods and Possessions be things onely accompaniyng the honor of the body of the owner, and therefore they be called corporate. 1613 Sir H. Finch Law (1636) 427 When the partie for not appearing should haue some great losse or corporate paine. |
† 3. Having a body, embodied; material. Obs.
| c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1057 In the whiche all maner shape and effigiation doth shyne clerely so well corporates [Fr. corporéez] as incorporates. 1557 North tr. Gueuara's Diall Pr. 29 a/1 Al thinges, aswel..visible, as invisible, corporate, as incorporate. 1613 R. C. Table Alph. (ed. 3), Corporate, hauing a body. 1865 Bushnell Vicar. Sacr. 442 Christ..is conceived to simply come into the corporate state of evil, and bear it with us. |
4. Forming a body politic, or corporation.
Hence corporate body, body corporate: see body n. 14. corporate town: a town possessing municipal rights, and acting by means of a corporation. corporate county: a city or town with its liberties, which has been constituted a county of itself, independent of the jurisdiction of the historical county or shire in which it is situated.
| 1512 Act 4 Hen VIII, c. 19 §10 In Hundredes, Townes Corporate and nott corporate, parisshes and all other places. 1577 Harrison England ii. v. (1877) i. 130 These citizens..are to serve..in corporat townes where they dwell. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 270 (R.) Any person or persons, body politique, or corporate, or incorporate. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. i. iv. 85 There are also counties corporate. 1822 Hazlitt Table-t. Ser. ii. viii. (1869) 159 Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals. 1825 M{supc}Culloch Pol. Econ. i. 33 The citizens of corporate towns. 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. i, The powerful and corporate association they formed amongst themselves. 1887 Lowell Democr. 32 They no longer belong to a class, but to a body corporate. |
b. transf. Forming one body constituted of many individuals.
| 1880 Huxley Crayfish 128 Such an organism as a crayfish is only a corporate unity, made up of innumerable partially independent individuals. |
5. a. Of or belonging to a body politic, or corporation, or to a body of persons.
corporate name: the name by which a corporation engages in legal acts.
| 1607 Shakes. Timon ii. ii. 213 They answer in a joynt and corporate voice. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. Ded. 6 Your endeavours, in your private, as well as corporate capacity. 1770 in Examiner 4 May (1812) 286/2 Lord Denbigh..asked what made a Corporate-act? Mr. Townsend, laughing, answered, an act of the Corporation. 1846 M{supc}Culloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) II. 449 All county gaols, and..seventeen of the largest prisons under corporate jurisdiction. 1855 Act 19–20 Vict. c. 17 §24 in Oxf. & Camb. Enactmts. 248 The College, if a corporation, shall be assessed for the same in its corporate name. 1876 Digby Real Prop. i. §1. 12 The land ceased to be public land and became what we style corporate or private property. |
b. corporate man chiefly U.S. = organization man s.v. organization 4.
| [1971 A. Jay (title) Corporation man.] 1978 Washington Post 5 Sept. b4/4 The cowboy is the last of the rugged individualists, the last of the non-*corporate man. 1979 Ibid. 22 July h2/2 He didn't like government. ‘I'm not a corporate man,’ he said. 1986 N.Y. Times Mag. 8 June vi. 66/3 The corporate man's tie suggests power, authority and unflappable decorum. |
† C. quasi-adv. Into the body. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vi. xx. (1495) 206 In yonglynges meete taken corporat nouryssheth..the body. |
Add: [B.] [5.] [b.] corporate raider orig. U.S., one who mounts an unwelcome takeover bid by buying up shares (usu. discreetly) on the stock market.
| 1967 Congress. Rec. 18 Jan. 858/1 The *corporate raider may thus act under a cloak of secrecy while obtaining the shares needed to put him on the road to a successful capture of the company. 1986 Times 19 Nov. 27/2 It rose 10p to 174p on speculation that one of the big Australian corporate raiders was trying to build a stake. |
▸ corporate culture n. the ethos of a particular company, or that of large businesses in general; the approach a company takes towards the working environment of its staff.
| 1966 Acad. Managem. Jrnl. 9 362/2 The problems the departments were concerned with most frequently were: adaptation of the organization to a changing environment;..fusion of individual and corporate goals; and maintenance of *corporate culture in times of change. 1977 Harvard Business Rev. (Nexis) Sept.–Oct. 158 Cooper brought a view from a very different corporate culture to GEC headquarters, even though GEC and Philips are to some extent competitors in the same industry. 1999 Independent on Sunday 7 Feb. (Smart Moves section) 3/1 A 360-degree feedback—the system where employees are not just given feedback from their manager, but also from peers and people they manage—is taking root in corporate culture. |
▸ corporate identity n. (a) U.S. status as a legally distinct incorporated company; (b) orig. U.S. a company's public image, esp. the use of a distinctive logo and coordinated packaging, etc., to aid product recognition.
| 1830J. Story in C. Sumner U.S. Circuit Court Rep., 1st Circuit (1836) I. 62 There was no *corporate identity. Neither was merged in the other... We must treat the case, then, as one of distinct corporations. 1906 Federal Reporter (U.S.) 142 252 (heading) The question of corporate identity or control. 1957 Wall St. Jrnl. 5 Apr. 1/4 We've never had any corporate identity. Our name doesn't mean a specific industry to most people... We have..thousands of products and there's nothing visual that associates most of them with our corporate name. 1998 N.Y. Times 7 May c24/3 In the late 1950's and early 60's, the company again shifted its approach, this time originating the concept that a company's corporate identity should be managed, preserved and extended with the same care given to other assets. 2002 Washington Post (Electronic ed.) 26 June The two lawmakers testified before a House Ways and Means subcommittee on their competing plans to stop the flood of companies shifting their corporate identity overseas. |
▸ corporate image n. = corporate identity n. (b) at Additions.
| 1945 F. Peterson Amer. Labor Unions xii. 190 The ‘*corporate image’ resulting from the public's viewing of a corporation-sponsored television program is quite different from the ‘union image’ resulting from the public's witnessing of a strike. 1958 Harvard Business Rev. Nov.–Dec. 49/2 Because the transition from brand image to corporate image has proceeded so fast, many of the component parts of the corporate image concept are still muddy. 1991 Managem. Accounting Sept. 14/1 When it comes to corporate images,..Taylor-Woodrow plc..is a leader in its field. The logo, depicting a tug-o-war team, not only serves to identify the company in the marketplace, but also sums up its particular management style—teamwork. |
▪ III. corporate, v. arch.
(ˈkɔːpəˌrɛ(ɪ)t)
[f. L. corporāt-, ppl. stem of corporāre to form into or furnish with a body, f. corpus, corpor- body.]
† 1. trans. To form into a corporation or body politic; to incorporate. Obs.
| 1531 Act 23 Hen. VIII, c. 19 All and singuler politike bodies spirituall in anie maner of wise corporated. 1598 Stow Surv. xlii. (1603) 449 Erected, corporated and endowed with landes. 1611 Speed Theat. Gt Brit. xxvii. (1614) 53/1 This city..whom Henry VI corporated a county of itselfe. 1631 Weever Anc. Fun. Mon. 446 This Hospitall was..erected, corporated, and endowed..by Queene Mary. |
2. To combine in one body; to incorporate (with); to embody.
| 1545 Hen. VIII in Stow Chron. (R.), Such notable vertues and princely qualities as you haue alleaged to be corporated in my person. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 43 Corporated with the flower of Frankincense and aloes. 1888 Pall Mall G. 5 Mar. 1/1 In ‘public spirit’ London is notoriously and disastrously deficient. The great thing needful is to corporate its conscience. |
3. intr. To unite or join in one body. rare.
| 1647 H. More Song of Soul iii. ii. xix, Though she [the Soul] corporate with no World yet. 1865 G. Meredith Farina 61 At the threshold..a number of the chief burgesses of Cologne had corporated spontaneously to condole with him. |
Hence ˈcorporating ppl. a., incorporating.
| 1881 Greener Gun 307 According to these chronicles, corporating mills, stamping mills, corning mills and solar stoves for drying the powder, were in use. |