▪ I. corse, n.
(kɔːs)
Forms: 3–7 cors, 4– corse; also 4–5 korse, 5–6 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. 1863 W. Phillips Speeches 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 Shakes. 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 Sir R. 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 metalwork 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. iij{supd}. 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 Thes. 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 of 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, † corse-weaver.
| 1501 Bury Wills (Camden) 84 To Alys my doughther on cors gyrdyll of cooloo{supr} blew, harnest w{supt} syluer. 1530 Palsgr. 209/1 Corse weaver, tissutier. 1552 Huloet, Corse gyrdle, cæstus, cinniligium. |
▪ II. † corse, course, v. Obs. or dial.
[Of uncertain origin.
In sense it is identical with coss v., being the usual English form while coss is mostly Sc.; this, with the fact that both coss and corse certainly go back to an early date, makes it almost impossible to consider them as mere phonetic variants arising from the vocalization of r in corse, or the insertion of r into the spelling of coss. It is, however, in favour of their identity that there is a third verb, scorse, variously written skoase, skoce, scoarse, scource, synonymous in meaning with corse and coss; and that It. has both cozzonare and scozzonare ‘to coarce or trucke horses with a horse-coarcer’ (Florio).]
trans. To exchange, to interchange; to barter; to deal in (a thing) by buying and selling again. In later use only in to corse horses. Hence ˈcorsing vbl. n., jobbing, brokery.
| c 1325 Metr. Hom. 139 And thar bisyd woned a kniht, That thoru kind was bond and thralle, Bot knihthed gat he wit catelle. This catel gat he wit okering, And led al his lif in corsing. 14.. Lyarde in Rel. Ant. II. 281 And ȝitt salle thay be coussid [? coursid] awaye at Appilby faire, As wyfes makis bargans, a horse for a mare. 1552 R. Hutchinson Serm. Oppression Wks. (1841) 321 To persuade the Roman senators to change and corse certain prisoners. 1600 Holland Livy xxii. xxiii. 446 About the exchange and coursing [permutandis] of certein prisoners or captives. 1650 Fuller Pisgah ii. iv. v. 78 They went thither to course horses. 1847–78 Halliwell, Corsing, horse-dealing. |
▪ III. corse
obs. f. coarse, course, cross, curse.