collaborate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin collabōrō (“to work together”), from its past participle collabōrātus,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} or perhaps from French collaborer, itself from the Latin verb.^[8][9] The Latin verb is formed from com- (“together”) and labōrō (“to work”),^[3][8][6][4] a verb from the Latin noun for toil or work, the source of labor.^[3][6] Etymonline also allows that it may be a back-formation from collaborator, recorded from 1802 and itself from French collaborateur.^[9][6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

To work together with another or others, especially on a literary or artistic work: 1871, in a letter printed in J. H. Appleton's Life and Literary Relics.^[8][6][2] Etymonline finds the verb implied in “collaborating” in 1845.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The agent noun came first: collaborator is recorded from 1802, in a letter of Jeremy Bentham, after French collaborateur, which was itself sometimes used in English.^[8][6][9] The noun collaboration followed in 1860, in the writings of Charles Reade, borrowed from French.^[6] During the Second World War the verb took on a bad sense, to cooperate treacherously with the enemy, especially with an occupying power; the OED records it from 1941,^[8][6][9] and Barnhart thinks it probably a translation of French collaborer as used in 1940.^[6] Collaborator gained the matching sense in 1943.^[8]

Timeline

• 1802 – collaborator, in Bentham.^[8][6]
• 1845 – “collaborating”.^[9]
• 1860 – collaboration, in Charles Reade.^[6]
• 1871 – to work together, especially on a literary or artistic work.^[8][6][2]
• 1941 – to cooperate treacherously with the enemy.^[8][6]
• 1943 – collaborator, one who collaborates with the enemy.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To work together with others on a shared task, especially an intellectual or artistic one: Three historians collaborated on the new atlas.^[2][4][8]
2. To cooperate treacherously with an enemy, especially one occupying one's country.^[4][8][7]

Word family

• collaboration
• collaborative
• collaborator
• collaboratively

Related words

• labor
• corroborate

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists collaborate and corroborate as words that are easily confused.^[5]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com