Late 16th century; earliest use found in William Garrard (d. 1587). From Italian raccolta, †racolta reunion, reassembly of dispersed soldiers, harvest, action of collecting, ordered collection of texts, anthology, harvest time, action of collecting things, assortment, use as noun of feminine of past participle of raccogliere to collect, to assemble, to harvest, probably from ri- + accogliere to receive, take, to greet (either from a- (from classical Latin ad-) + cogliere to collect or perhaps from post-classical Latin accolligere, only attested in sense ‘to assume as a joint proprietor’).