(Their exact meanings wanted long before and still) Incorporated(Inc.) and incorporation

1. What does Incorporation mean?

Incorporation (Inc.) is the forming of a new corporation (a corporation being a legal entity that is effectively recognised as a person under the law). The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town. This article focuses on the process of incorporation; see also corporation. (...)

..... 자료: Wikipedia, Incorporation (business)

as of October  22, 2011

2. What does "inc" or "incorporated" mean?

Legal state of existence signifying that a corporate entity has been recognized; that is, a legal entity has been authorized by a state or other political authority to operate according to the entity's approved articles of incorporation or charter. Incorporated entities share basic attributes: an exclusive name, continued and independent existence from shareholders or members, paid-in capital, and limited liability.

.... 자료: Yahoo answers

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According to natural usages of the ending ‘─(a)tion’ attached to verbs, incorporation should mean a kind of action which establishes a legal entity that normally serves a profit-seeking purpose, and that is legally separate from any natural individuals who are involved in such an entity.

But what does incorporated exactly mean in your world of English-speaking people? Does it mean a corporation which has a legal entity and whose shares are publicly owned and traded in an official exchange? Or does it just mean any entity who conducts a business with a legal status separated from natural individuals, and no matter how their shares are owned, well registered or traded, so that it can include general or limited partnerships and so many legal forms of business or non-business organizations?

The second answer for the word, incorporated, marked above is quite revealing. But I don't know what it exactly means in a common-sense and legal-sense world of English speaking people.