Collect

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /kəˈlɛkt/

Definitions

1. To bring or gather together items or individuals in one place ; to receive money or payments owed ; to accumulate facts, data, or information systematically
2. To assemble people or objects for a purpose ; to obtain money that is due or owed ; to gather information or materials through effort or study
3. To gather or amass things or people from various places ; to get or take payments, fees, or debts ; to compile or store facts, statistics, or other data

Etymology: Latin "legere" once meant "to gather" before it meant "to read," and "collect" keeps that older sense. The verb combines "com-" ("together") with "legere," and the Latin "colligere" ("to gather together") is its direct ancestor. The word reached English in Middle English as "collecten," borrowed from Old French "collecter," which took it from Medieval Latin "collectare," a term used for gathering money. The word's history runs through Church Latin as well. "Collecta" meant an assembly, and by the Middle Ages it had come to mean a tax, a gathering for prayer, and a prayer itself. Those senses left a trace in English: a "collect" is a short prayer in the liturgy, and it descends from the Ecclesiastical Latin word for the gathering that opened a service.

Synonyms: gather, assemble, accumulate, compile, amass

Antonyms: disperse, scatter, separate, diverge, distribute