- incorporate
- late 14c., "to put (something) into the body or substance of (something else)," from L.L. incorporatus, pp. of incorporare "unite into one body," from L. in- "into" + corpus (gen. corporis) "body" (see corporeal). The legal sense first recorded in Rolls of Parliament, 1461.
"Incorporation, n. The act of uniting several persons into one fiction called a corporation, in order that they may be no longer responsible for their actions. A, B and C are a corporation. A robs, B steals and C (it is necessary that there be one gentleman in the concern) cheats. It is a pundering, thieving, swindling corporation. But A, B and C, who have jointly determined and severally executed every crime of the corporation, are blameless." [Ambrose Bierce, 1885]