Civil protection

The thirteenth entry is o corpo de voluntários, and the noun that opens it is one Portuguese word standing where English keeps two that no longer look like relatives. Behind both lies Latin corpus, the body, and English received it twice from French. The first arrival became « corpse »: the p was put back centuries later on the model of the Latin word, and it has never once been pronounced. The second arrival is « corps », which kept its French sound whole and says neither the p nor the s, so that one body of people is « a corps », heard as « core », and several of them are « corps », heard as « cores ». Everything English organises into ranks carries that spelling — « the diplomatic corps » and « the press corps » — while the dead body keeps the other one. Portuguese split nothing at all. O corpo is the body on the table, o corpo de bombeiros is the fire service, and o corpo de voluntários of this page is the same noun once more. A reader coming this way has only one thing to get right, and it is a sound.