Etymologically
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collage

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 22:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kɒˈlɑːʒ/, /kəˈlɑːʒ/[1]
  • US: /kəˈlɑʒ/, /koʊˈlɑʒ/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French collage (“a pasting, gluing”),[2][3][4][5] formed from coller (“to glue”) and the suffix -age,[6][7] the verb coming from colle (“glue”),[8][9][6] from Vulgar Latin *colla,[8][6][10] from Ancient Greek κόλλα (kólla, “glue”).[8][3][10] Etymonline calls the Greek word of uncertain origin, perhaps Pre-Greek.[3] The same Greek noun is the source of collagen, colloid and protocol.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An abstract form of art in which photographs, scraps of paper, newspaper cuttings, string and the like are set side by side and glued to a surface: 1919, in Wyndham Lewis's The Caliph's Design.[2][8][3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1915–20.[7]

Semantic evolution

Borrowed as the name of a technique of the modern art of the time, the word soon also named a single work made in this way.[9][11][6] It was then extended to any work, such as a piece of music or writing, made by combining unrelated fragments or styles,[9][6] and more loosely to any jumbled collection of things, impressions or events.[11][12] A verb, to make a collage of or from, followed in 1964.[4][8][6]

Timeline

  • 1919 – an art form in which materials are glued to a surface.[2][8][3]
  • 1964 – verb, to assemble into a collage.[4][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An art form in which pieces of paper, photographs, cloth and other materials are arranged and stuck to a backing.[9][12][2]
  2. A work made in this way: She framed a collage of old train tickets.[9][6][12]
  3. A work, such as a piece of music or a film, that combines unrelated styles or fragments.[9][6]
  4. A varied or jumbled collection of things: a collage of memories.[12][11]

Verb

  1. To make a collage from things, or to decorate something with a collage.[6]

Word family

  • collagist
  • collage film

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press