Compile

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /kəmˈpaɪl/

Definitions

1. To gather information or materials from various sources and arrange them systematically into a single collection or document
2. To assemble data or content from different origins and organize it into a cohesive and structured format for easier access or understanding
3. The act of collecting and organizing information or items from multiple sources into a unified system or format for presentation

Etymology: The verb "compile" once meant something closer to theft than to scholarship. Its Latin source, "compīlō", meant "to plunder" or "to pillage," built from "com-" (together) and "pīlō" (to rob or pound), so the image was of gathering goods together by seizing them. Writers borrowed from other people's works in the same spirit, and the sense of gathering material from many places took root long before anyone thought of it as honest work. The word reached English through Middle English "compilen", which came from Old French "compiler". Over the centuries the emphasis shifted from taking to arranging: a compiler collects scattered materials and puts them into order, whether a book, a list, or a body of laws. The gathering that once implied robbery became the neutral, even respectable, act of assembling a whole from its parts.

Synonyms: assemble, gather, collect, amass, accumulate

Antonyms: disperse, scatter, dissipate, separate, divide