PERMANENT SOURCE RECORD
ALL SOURCES ↗BIBLIOGRAPHIC IDENTITYmw-collect
SOURCE
RECORD.
One work. Every claim that depends on it. No citation without a consequence you can inspect.
15 PUBLIC LINKS INTO THE GRAPH.
This count excludes duplicate dossier-path citations. Open the claims below to see exactly how the source is used.
historical dictionarymw-collect
Collect — Word History
- AUTHOR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster Editors
- YEAR
- 2026
- PUBLISHER
- Merriam-Webster
- DOI
- Not recorded
- SOURCE TYPE
- historical dictionary
- EXTERNAL RECORD
- OPEN ORIGINAL ↗
011
CONTRARIAN TRUTH CLAIMS
RANKED REVEALS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
RANK 174GRADE Asupports
Collect almost says its Latin construction aloud.
Latin colligere joins com- with legere: gathering together. Unlike many dramatic semantic reversals, the modern English core remains strikingly close to the historical construction.
*leǵ-
*leǵ- → legere → colligere → collēctus → collecter → collecten → collect
com- + legerePublishes the Latin compound analysis behind collect.
collect dossier ↗truth record ↗84UNVEILING
022
SCHOLARLY DISAGREEMENT
DISPUTE POSITIONS THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
opensupportsproposed
Are the prayer and gathering senses identical histories?
They converge on Latin collēctus / colligere, but the prayer noun may refer specifically to a congregation’s gathering place; the immediate motivation is qualified as “perhaps.”
Etymology and First Known UseDistinguishes the early prayer noun from the later gathering verb and records their historical relationship.
resolvedsupportsestablished
Is collect really com- plus legere?
Yes. Latin colligere contains the assimilated together-prefix com- / col- and legere “gather, select.”
com- + legerePublishes the compound analysis of collect.
035
CANONICAL RELATIONSHIP CLAIMS
EDGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
EDGE 76supportsestablished
collect → collecten
Present-Day English → Middle English · inheritance
- SOUND
- Middle English inflection was lost and the learned spelling stabilized.
- MEANING
- Accumulating and inferring broadened into the modern family of gathering, receiving, and regaining control.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster editors
Etymology and First Known UseDistinguishes the early prayer noun from the later verb.
EDGE 77supportsestablished
collecten → collecter
Middle English → Anglo-French · borrowing
- SOUND
- Middle English borrowed the Anglo-French verb.
- MEANING
- Accumulating, inferring, and calculating are recorded early senses.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster editors
Middle English verbEDGE 78supportsestablished
collecter → collēctus
Anglo-French → Latin · borrowing
- SOUND
- Anglo-French transmitted the Latin participial stem.
- MEANING
- The gathered-together sense remains transparent.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster editors
Anglo-French and Latin stagesEDGE 79supportsestablished
collēctus → colligere
Latin → Latin · inflection
- SOUND
- collēctus is the past participle of colligere.
- MEANING
- A completed gathering becomes the collected state.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Latin lexicography
collēctusEDGE 80supportsestablished
colligere → legere
Latin → Latin · derivation
- SOUND
- colligere combines the assimilated com- / col- “together” prefix with legere.
- MEANING
- Gathering becomes explicitly gathering together.
- SCHOLAR / EDITOR
- Merriam-Webster · Latin lexicography
com- + legere041
LEXICAL ATTESTATIONS
WITNESSES REPORTED BY THIS SOURCE
collectSOURCE-REPORTED
collect
English lexical record for the prayer noun
OPEN WITNESS 20 ↗053
COMPARATIVE EVIDENCE
COGNATES, DESCENDANTS, AND RELATIVES
063
GEOGRAPHIC AND TEMPORAL CLAIMS
JOURNEY STAGES THAT CITE THIS SOURCE
stage 2supports
Roman world
Analyzes Latin colligere “gather together” as com- plus legere “gather by picking, select,” supporting the Roman compound stage.
Word History: Etymology, Verb · regionalstage 3supports
Anglo-French and Middle English
Separates the prayer noun transmitted through Anglo-French/Medieval Latin from the accumulation verb and dates their English records to before the twelfth century and the fifteenth century respectively.
Word History: Etymology and First Known Use, Noun and Verb · regionalstage 4supports
Global English
Documents current gathering, accumulating, receiving-payment, retrieving, inferring, and self-composure senses without assigning the whole semantic bundle one start year.
Verb definitions 1–5 and noun definitions 1–2 · global070
NON-GENEALOGICAL CONNECTIONS
HISTORICAL CONTEXT, KEPT SEPARATE
No non-genealogical context link currently cites this source.
081
WORD-FAMILY REUSE
DOSSIERS THAT DEPEND ON THIS SOURCE
5 entry-scoped citations map reviewed dossier paths onto the canonical claims above.