: a noncommissioned officer ranking in the army above a private first class and below a sergeant and in the marine corps above a lance corporal and below a sergeant
: a linen cloth on which the eucharistic elements are placed
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The Various Uses of Corporal
The adjective corporal today usually appears in the phrase corporal punishment, which means "bodily punishment". This used to include such acts as mutilation, branding, imprisonment, and even death. But today execution comes under the separate heading of "capital punishment", which originally involved losing your head (capit- meaning "head"). Milder forms of corporal punishment are used by American parents, and were once common in schools as well. Corporal is occasionally used in other ways; in the traditional church, the "corporal works of mercy" include seven helpful acts such as sheltering the homeless and burying the dead. Corporal as a military rank actually comes from caporal—which has the same root as capital.
Adjective started to suffer the corporal ailments that come with advancing age
Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)
borrowed from Middle French, "lowest noncommissioned officer," alteration (by association with cors, corps "body," Latin corporālis "of the body") of caporal, borrowed from Italian caporale "leader of a small military unit," probably from Medieval Latin capor-, capur-, restructuring of Latin capit- (stem of caput "head") + Italian -ale, noun and adjective suffix, going back to Latin -ālis-al entry 1 — more at head entry 1
Adjective
Middle English corporel, corporal, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French corporel, borrowed from Latin corporālis "of the body, corporeal," from corpor-, corpus "body" + -ālis-al entry 1 — more at midriff
Noun (2)
Middle English corporalle, borrowed from Anglo-French & Medieval Latin; Anglo-French corporal, borrowed from Medieval Latin corporāle (probably originally as modifying linteāmen "linen cloth" or a word of similar sense), from neuter of Latin corporālis "of the body, corporeal" (alluding to the belief that the eucharistic elements are the body of Christ) — more at corporal entry 2