Collegiates

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A group of individuals engaged in higher education at a university or college level, often sharing academic pursuits and social experiences
2. Referring to students affiliated with an institution of higher learning, typically involved in various collegiate activities
3. Describing members of a learning community that emphasizes intellectual growth, collaboration, and social engagement within educational settings

Etymology: "Collegiates" is simply the plural of "collegiate," so its history belongs to that adjective. The adjective came into Middle English from Medieval Latin "collegiatus," meaning something that belongs to a college or community of people sharing a common body. That Latin word is built from "collegium," a term for a community or group, which itself grew from "collega," the root of "colleague." The shared ancestry is a useful clue: a college and a colleague both began as a gathering of people bound together by a common purpose. The noun sense used here, a person studying at a university or college, follows from the older meaning of the adjective. Something "collegiate" was first something organised as a body of fellow members, and over time the word attached itself to the institutions and the people within them. The plural form simply names the group of those students together, so the word's movement from a shared group identity to a set of students is a straightforward narrowing rather than a sudden shift.

Synonyms: students, scholars