collection
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English colleccioun, collection, from Old French collection, from Latin collēctiō, collēctiōnem, from collēctus, from colligō (“collect together”), composed of con- + legō (“bring together, gather, collect”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
collection (countable and uncountable, plural collections)
- A set of items or amount of material procured or gathered together.
- 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page vii:
- Secondly, I continue to base my concepts on intensive study of a limited suite of collections, rather than superficial study of every packet that comes to hand.
- 1837, William Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences
- collections of moisture
- 1887, Robert Bartholow, A Treatise on the Practice of Medicine
- a purulent collection
- The attic contains a remarkable collection of antiques, oddities, and random junk.
- The asteroid belt consists of a collection of dust, rubble, and minor planets.
- Multiple related objects associated as a group.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:
- Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.
- He has a superb coin collection.
- The activity of collecting.
- Collection of trash will occur every Thursday.
- (set theory, topology, mathematical analysis) A set of sets; used because such a thing is in general too large to comply with the formal definition of a set.
- A gathering of money for charitable or other purposes, as by passing a contribution box for donations.
- (law) Debt collection.
- (obsolete) The act of inferring or concluding from premises or observed facts; also, that which is inferred.
- 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book:
- We may safely say thus, that wrong collections have been hitherto made out of those words by modern divines.
- (UK) The jurisdiction of a collector of excise.
- (Oxford University, usually in the plural) A set of college exams generally taken at the start of the term.
- The quality of being collected; calm composure.
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
set of items
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activity of collecting
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gathering of money for charitable or other purposes
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debt collection — see debt collection
act of inferring or concluding from premises or observed facts
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jurisdiction of a collector of excise
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set of college exams
the quality of being collected; calm composure
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
FrenchEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from Latin collēctiō, collēctiōnem. Cf. also Old French quieuçon, which may be inherited from the same source, and the modern cueillaison, which was probably formed analogically.
PronunciationEdit
- IPA(key): /kɔ.lɛk.sjɔ̃/
Audio (France, Paris) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔ̃
- Homophone: collections
- Hyphenation: col‧lec‧tion
NounEdit
collection f (plural collections)
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- → Romanian: colecție
- → Turkish: koleksiyon
Further readingEdit
- “collection”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.