Etymologically
Log in

collega

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:56. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [kɔlˈleː.ɡa][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [kolˈlɛː.ɡa][1]

Forms

collēga m (genitive collēgae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin com- + lēgō (“to appoint as deputy”), with the suffix -a.[2][3] Varro explains colleagues as those “chosen together”, and the TLL compares lēx “law” as well.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus onwards,[6] who has a slave speak of a deed done by his colleague's courage and his own kindness.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense was a colleague in a magistracy, as Ennius' Cethegus with Tuditanus as his colleague, and Cicero's “twice consuls together, colleagues in the censorship”.[2][4] Pericles' fellow general Sophocles is called his collega in praetura by Cicero.[4][7]

It was also used of any associate or fellow, as Cicero's “fellow in wisdom”, and of a comrade or accomplice.[7][2][6] In Medieval Latin it also had a feminine, a fellow nun or companion.[6] English colleague came from it through French in the 1530s.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of a fellow slave.[2][6]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses it of a colleague in office.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of colleagues in the censorship and praetorship.[4][7][6]
  • 1530s – English colleague is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A colleague (in office).[2][1]
  2. An associate, fellow, companion.[2][1]
  3. (Medieval Latin, feminine) A female companion; a fellow nun.[6]

Word family

  • collēgium

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  4. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  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 Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com