collaboro

Forms

collabōrō (present infinitive collabōrāre, perfect active collabōrāvī, supine collabōrātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin con- + labōrō (“to work, toil”).^[2][3][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from the Itala and Tertullian on.^[2] Tertullian, writing on repentance, says that when one member suffers the whole body must grieve with it and work together for the remedy (condoleat ūniversum et ad remedium conlabōret necesse est).^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It is a Christian word.^[2][3] It meant first to share labours and sufferings: the Passion of Perpetua has hīc sum tēcum et conlabōrō tēcum “I am here with you and I labour with you”, and Augustine writes of fellow bishops in Numidia who labour and face danger together.^[2] More generally it meant to work together or cooperate, with ad, in, cum or the dative:^[2] the Vulgate has collabōrantēs fideī ēvangeliī “striving together for the faith of the gospel”,^[2] and Gregory the Great observes that the sight of a fellow worker lightens labour.^[2] One late writer uses it for striving hard.^[2]

Medieval Latin kept the sense of working together,^[7][8][9] and in law codes and charters, with the force of the prefix weakened, it came to mean to acquire by labour and to cultivate land; the participle collabōrātum became a noun for what had been earned or acquired.^[7] In Polish records it means to finish field work and bring in the harvest.^[10] English collaborate, recorded from 1845, may come from its past participle or from French.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of the whole body working for the remedy of one member.^[2][5][6]
• beginning of 3rd century AD – The Passion of Perpetua has conlabōrō tēcum.^[2][6]
• after 220 AD – The Itala uses it in the Second Letter to Timothy.^[2][6]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine writes of fellow bishops labouring together.^[2][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in the Letter to the Philippians.^[2][6]
• 540–604 AD – Gregory the Great speaks of the sight of a fellow worker.^[2][6]
• 766 – A charter in the Lorsch codex uses the noun collabōrātum of acquired property.^[7]
• 1845 – English collaborate is recorded.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (Late Latin) To share in labours; to toil or suffer together (with).^[2][1]
2. (Late Latin) To work together, cooperate, collaborate.^{[2][5][3][4][12][1]}
3. (Late Latin) To strive hard.^[2]
4. (Medieval Latin, law) To acquire by labour; to cultivate (land).^[7]
5. (Medieval Latin) To finish (field work); to bring in (a harvest).^[10]

Word family

• collabōrātor

Related words

• labōrō
• labor²
• English collaborate

Usage notes

It is often spelled conlabōrō.^[2][7] A late grammatical treatise quoted by the TLL explains the unassimilated prefix by the meaning: ⟨con-⟩ stays whole before ⟨l⟩ when the verb always involves more than one person, as in conlabōrō and conlaudō, but becomes ⟨col-⟩ in verbs such as collocō and colligō.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c d e Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
8. ^ Bartal, Antal, et al. (1987–), Lexicon Latinitatis Medii Aevi Hungariae, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; online ed. ELTE
9. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Lexicon mediae et infimae Latinitatis Polonorum (1953–), Kraków: Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN; electronic ed. elexicon.scriptores.pl
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson