korporaatide

Korporaatide is the genitive plural form of korporaat, an Estonian historical legal term used to denote a corporate body or organized collective with a legal personality. The word is encountered primarily in older legal documents, charters and archival writings. In contemporary Estonian, the same concept is usually expressed with korporatsioon (corporation) or organisatsioon (organization). The precise sense of korporaat depends on context, but it generally refers to a formally established body that possesses certain rights, responsibilities and a defined membership, often governed by a charter or statute.

Etymology: korporaat is a loanword derived from Latin corpus meaning “body,” likely entering Estonian through German or other European legal vocabularies. The suffix -aat forms a collective noun, and korporaatide is the genitive plural used to indicate possession or relation to multiple korporaadid.

Usage: Today korporaatide appears mainly in historical studies, linguistics discussions about Estonian legal vocabulary, and in archival catalogues. The term is considered archaic or specialized in modern usage, and it is often replaced by korporatsioonide or organisatsioonide in contemporary texts.

See also: korporatsioon, korporaad, organisatsioon, korpus.