collector
/kəˈlektə/kuh-LEK-tur
/kəˈlɛktɚ/kuh-LEK-tur
Meaningone who collects
Common meaning: someone who gathers things, as a hobby or job
- colwith, together; thoroughlySkeat, Concise Etymological Dictionary (1911), p. 99 · scan
- lectto gather, pick out; to readLewis & Short, Latin Dictionary (1879), p. 1048 · scan
- oragent ending: the doer, or the device that does it
‘with, together’ + ‘to gather, pick out’ → collector
Journey through time
- Latincom- + legere‘with, together; thoroughly + to gather, pick out; to read’source
- Latincollectasource
- Late Latincollectare‘to collect money’source
- Old Frenchcollecter‘to collect money’source
- Englishcollect‘to gather’
- Englishformed in English from collectcollector‘someone who gathers things, as a hobby or job’ · today
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Formed in English from collect + -or.
Dictionary: Skeat (1898), COLLECT, p.121 · scan
Roots
- collecta Latin “a gathering”
- legō, lēgī, lēctum Latin “to gather, pick out; to read”
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