Etymology: In sense 3, < French collecte (= Provençal collecta , Spanish colecta , Italian colletta ), < Latin collecta , noun, a gathering together, (1) in Classical Latin a collection of money or taxes, (2) in late Latin (Jerome) an assembly or meeting, (3) in medieval Latin in the liturgical sense (which was the first in English): < collectus past participle of colligĕre to gather together, collect n. (The formation is parallel to that of Romanic nouns in -ata , -ada , -ée .) In Old French it had the semi-popular form coleite (later coloite ) whence Middle English collete , as well as the learned collecte , adapted from the Latin collecta , familiar in ecclesiastical use. Senses 1, 2 were probably directly < Latin, but they were merely extensions of the earlier use of collecte as representing Latin collecta in sense 3. Sense 4 is a later adaptation of the Latin.

Etymology: < Latin collectus past participle of colligĕre to gather together.

Etymology: < collect v. (compare quot. 1873 at sense A.).

Etymology: Partly < Old French collecte-r (of date 1371 in sense ‘to collect taxes’; so medieval Latin collectāre , Spanish colectar ), < collecte , noun, Latin collecta , collect n. But it is probable that the introduction of the verb as English was partly due to the earlier use of collect past participle as a direct adaptation of Latin collectus, past participle of colligĕre to gather together ( < col- + legĕre to gather); and it is certain that the use of the word rests upon its being viewed as the formal English representative of Latin colligĕre, as in the numerous verbs formed on the Latin participial stems: compare attract, correct, protect, etc.