corpse

 
Pronunciation: /kɔːps/

noun

  • a dead body, especially of a human being rather than an animal: the corpse of a man lay there figurative he believed that fascism would revive the corpse of Europe

verb

[no object] theatrical slang
  • spoil a piece of acting by forgetting one’s lines or laughing uncontrollably: Peter just can’t stop himself corpsing when he is on stage
  • [with object] cause (an actor) to forget their lines and start laughing: one singer ad libbed and corpsed his colleagues on stage

Origin:

Middle English (denoting the living body of a person or animal): alteration of corse by association with Latin corpus, a change which also took place in French (Old French cors becoming corps). The p was originally silent, as in French; the final e was rare before the 19th century, but now distinguishes corpse from corps