Etymologically
Log in

college

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 21:23. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

college m (invariable, or plural colleges)[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English college, which DELI dates to about 1380, from Old French college, from Latin collegium (“body of colleagues, guild”).[3][4][5] The Latin word is formed from collega (“colleague”) with the suffix “-ium”.[6][7] The same Latin word gave the learned Italian collegio, and Old Italian coleo (Pavia) and Sardinian boddeu (“group, gathering”) continue it by popular descent.[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI and GRADIT date the word to 1892, in Garollo's encyclopaedic dictionary, in the sense of a secondary school or a college attached to a university in England.[3][1][8]

Semantic evolution

In Italian the word names the institutions of the English-speaking world only: the residential colleges of the English universities, and in the United States the institution that grants the first degree.[1][10][11] The Hoepli encyclopaedia defined it as the institutes, founded at various times, in which the professors and students of an English university live together, and Guido Piovene, writing on America, explained that a man had gone straight from high school into business without il College.[12] By 1963 a women's magazine used it as an adjective, stile college, for the look of American students.[12]

Timeline

  • About 1380 – English college is recorded.[3]
  • 1892 – Italian college appears in Garollo's dictionary.[3][1]
  • 1963 – A magazine uses college as an adjective for a style of dress.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. In Britain, a boarding school or a residential college of a university; in the United States, a college or university faculty granting the first degree.[1][10][2]
  2. The building or buildings that house such a school or college.[1][10][11]

Usage notes

The word is pronounced either in English, /ˈkɒlɪdʒ/, or in an adapted form, /ˈkɔlledʒ/.[10][2][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  2. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  3. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  8. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 15, 797
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  11. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  13. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli