collection
English
Etymology
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”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kəˈlɛkʃən/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛkʃən
- Hyphenation: col‧lec‧tion
Noun
collection (countable and uncountable, plural collections)
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Museum stores its butterfly collection in special specimen drawers.
- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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 868004604, book:
- We may safely say thus, that wrong collections have been hitherto made out of those words by modern divines.
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- (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 terms
- capped collection
- collection agency
- collection box
- collection-plate
- collection plate
- collection procedure
- collection society
- e-collection
- fog collection
- garbage collection
- injustice collection
- minicollection
- money collection
- selective collection
- take up a collection
- type collection
Translations
set of items
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activity of collecting
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topology, analysis: set of sets
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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.
Translations to be checked
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French
Alternative forms
- c., coll. (abbreviations)
Etymology
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.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɔ.lɛk.sjɔ̃/
Audio (France, Paris) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔ̃
- Homophone: collections
- Hyphenation: col‧lec‧tion
Noun
collection f (plural collections)
- collection
Derived terms
- collec
- collectionner
- collectionneur
- collectionnite
Related terms
- collecte
- collecter
- cueillette
- cueillir
Descendants
- → Romanian: colecție
- → Turkish: koleksiyon
Further reading
- “collection”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.