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I tried looking up the word "corps" on dictionary.reference.com and it says it's pronounced "kawr", "kohr", "kawrs", or "kohrs", none of which match the way I've always pronounced it with the "ps" sound. I have always been a little leery saying it this way because it sounds like a dead body, and if you're talking about the Marine Corps then this isn't the best mental image.

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"Corps" and "corpse" both have the same ultimate origin in Latin "corpus" (body).

The former derives from the Latin via Medieval French, as far as I know. The French pronunciation "korr" (or slightly Anglicised to "kohr" or even "kore") is thus the historically correct pronunciation.

Pronouncing it in any way ending with an "s" is not advisable. It certainly won't give others the impression that you're educated. (Worst of all is "corpse" - please never say it like that.)

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  • Thanks for the quick response. Is the "s" silent in the plural form too?
    – Frank Pierce
    Commented Dec 9, 2010 at 21:36
  • @Frank: Indeed. Again, this follows from French, where the pronunciation of the single and plural forms are the same (both ending in 's').
    – Noldorin
    Commented Dec 9, 2010 at 21:46
  • @Erik Kowal - please read about out editing policies; that edit should not have been approved. Thanks.
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 5:33
  • @Noldorin do you know if the word corpse has any relation to the old nordic word "kroppur"? (modern Norwegian: "Krop").
    – bodacious
    Commented Jan 20, 2017 at 18:09
  • @bodacious: Good question. It seems "corpse" derives from French "cors", from Latin "corpus", from PIE krep- or *kʷerp-, meaning literally "body". Whereas "kroppur" derives from proto-Germanic "kruppaz", from PIE *grewb- ‎(“to curve, bend, crawl”), from PIE *ger- ‎(“to turn, wind”). At least, this is what I can tell. So no, they're apparently not cognate. I admit I'm surprised however! However, English "group" *is cognate with Norwegian "krop"/Old Norse "kroppur". (Perhaps the linguistics could revise these etymologies with time though.)
    – Noldorin
    Commented Jan 20, 2017 at 18:51
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Corps, which is pronounced like "core," and corpse are two entirely different words, and I have never heard anyone pronounce them the same way. I've never heard anyone say Army "corpse" for example.

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  • I know Obama pronounced a variant "corpsman" as "corpse-man" (youtube.com/watch?v=ZlKIfzoC8D0), and I looked up "corps" as a result since I have been pronouncing it the same way. This is ultimately what lead me to ask this question in the first place... I just didn't want to start a political debate!
    – Frank Pierce
    Commented Dec 9, 2010 at 22:01
  • I suspect that the existence of "corpse" is what has caused "corps" to retain its exotic pronunciation. In the case of "corpsman", there is no corresponding pressure. "Corpsman" might have come to be pronounced "core-man", but AFAIK it hasn't.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Dec 10, 2010 at 12:04
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    @colin Just found this site in a related question forvo.com/search/corpsman
    – mplungjan
    Commented Feb 1, 2011 at 12:10

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