incorporeal
English
Etymology
From Latin incorporeus + -al.[1] By surface analysis, in- + corporeal.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɪnkɔː(ɹ)ˈpɔːɹiəl/, /ɪŋkɔː(ɹ)ˈpɔːɹiəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file) Audio (General American): (file)
- Rhymes: -ɔːɹiəl
Adjective
incorporeal (comparative more incorporeal, superlative most incorporeal)
- Having no material form or physical substance.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Thus incorporeal spirits to smaller forms / Reduced their shapes immense.
- 1692, Richard Bentley, [A Confutation of Atheism] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693:
- Sense and perception must necessarily proceed from some incorporeal substance within us.
- (law) Relating to an asset that does not have a material form; such as a patent.
Synonyms
- (having no material form): disembodied; intangible; uncorporeal
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
having no material form or physical substance
|
Noun
incorporeal (plural incorporeals)
- Something that is incorporeal.
- 1628, Ow[en] Felltham, “Of Assimilation”, in Resolves or, Excogitations. A Second Centurie. (Resolves: A Duple Century […]), London: […] [George Purslowe] for Henry Seile, […], →OCLC, page 195:
- The World is all viciſsitude and converſion. Nor is it onely true in Materials and Substances; but even in Spirits, in Incorporeals; […]
- 1793, Thomas Taylor, “The Timæus of Plato: A Dialogue on Nature”, in The Cratylus, Phædo, Parmenides and Timæus of Plato. […], London: […] Benjamin and John White, […], →OCLC, Introduction, page 395:
- The divine nature of the celeſtial bodies cannot be ſeen through the teleſcope, and incorporeals are not to be viewed with a microſcopic eye: […]
- 1875, John H. Smyth, “The right of homestead in lands held in common”, in The Law of Homestead and Exemptions, San Francisco, Calif.: Sumner Whitney & Co., →OCLC, Addenda, pages 413–414:
- Where the interest in a piece of land of one of six heirs to the deceased father’s estate was levied upon and it was claimed as a homestead, the Court said: “It is an incorporeal, and an incorporeal cannot be the object of the homestead act.”
- 1880, Gaius, translated by James Muirhead, “[Commentarius Secundus]”, in The Institutes of Gaius and Rules of Ulpian. […], Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, […], →OCLC, “Gaii Institutionum Iuris Civilis Commentarii Quattuor”, § 28, page 82:
- It is manifest that incorporeals are incapable of transfer by delivery. But urban praedial rights may be ceded in court, and rural ones may also be mancipated.
References
- ^ “incorporeal, adj. and n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.