Body

Old English bodig — trunk of a person or animal. Related to Old High German botah. Original meaning was strictly physical — the trunk separate from the limbs. The spiritual and political dimensions accumulated later.

Expanded to carry enormous weight — political terrain, site of law, object of medicine, instrument of labor, subject of art. 'Bodily autonomy,' 'body politic,' 'body count' — the word absorbs whatever the culture needs it to carry.