collaborator

Etymology

It is borrowed from French collaborateur,^[2][3][4] which comes from Medieval Latin collaborator,^[3][4] formed from Late Latin collabōrātus, the past participle of collabōrō (“to work together”).^[3][5][2] The verb is formed from Latin com- (“with, together”) and labōrō (“to work”), from labor (“toil, work”), the source of labour.^[5][2][6] The OED describes the English word as an agent noun in Latin form from the Latin verb, probably made after the French word,^[7] and Etymonline notes that collaborateur itself was sometimes used in English.^[2] The noun is older than the verb collaborate (1871), which Etymonline thinks may be a back-formation from it.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who works together with another or others, especially on literary, artistic or scientific work: first recorded in 1802, in a letter of Jeremy Bentham.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

For more than a century the word was neutral, used of co-authors and fellow workers.^[7][2] During the Second World War the verb collaborate came to be used of those who cooperated with the Nazis or Fascists, especially in occupied France (1941),^[8][7] and the noun followed with the sense of a person who cooperates traitorously with the enemy, recorded in English from 1943.^[7][3] Both senses are current.^[3]

Timeline

• 1802 – one who works jointly with another, especially in literature, art or science.^[7][2]
• 1943 – one who cooperates traitorously with an enemy, especially an occupying power.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who works with another or others to produce something, such as a book, a piece of research or a work of art: The two collaborators finished the screenplay in a month.^[3][7]
2. A person who cooperates traitorously with an enemy, especially with a power occupying his or her own country.^[3][7]

Related words

• collaborate
• collaboration
• labour
• laboratory
• elaborate
• corroborate

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology