A corps ( /ˈkɔər/ "core"; the plural is spelled the same as singular but pronounced /ˈkɔərz/ "cores"; from French, from the Latin corpus "body") is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service. Corps may also refer to a particular unit or a particular branch of service, such as the United States Marine Corps, the Corps of Royal Marines, the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms, or the Corps of Commissionaires.
The military term was subsequently adopted for public service organizations with a paramilitary command structure, volunteer public service organizations, such as the Peace Corps, various ambulance corps, some NGOs (non-government organizations), and other civic volunteer organizations. Due to this use of the term, it has also spread to some other civic or volunteer organizations that lack the paramilitary structure.
Read more about Corps: Military Formation, Administrative Corps, Non-military Use
Famous quotes containing the word corps:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“There was nothing to equal it in the whole history of the Corps Diplomatique.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“Ce corps qui s’appelait et qui s’appelle encore le saint empire romain n’était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire. This agglomeration which called itself and still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)