Making a dictionary

The first word on this list is borrowed from Latin, and German has given it two genders with two meanings. Das Korpus, neuter, is what a dictionary is built on: a large, searchable collection of real texts. Its plural keeps the Latin shape, die Korpora, and you will meet it in every research paper on the subject. Der Korpus, masculine, is something you can touch: the carcass of a wardrobe before the doors go on, the figure of Christ on a crucifix, and, jokingly, a person’s own body. Its plural is German, die Korpusse. So the article is not decoration here but the only thing that tells a reader whether a sentence is about texts or furniture. The masculine is also heard in the linguistic sense, but in writing about lexicography das Korpus is what careful authors use, and the neuter plural is the safe test: nobody writes Korpora about cupboards.