Collector

How to spell collector

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce collector

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does collector mean?

1. nounA person who gathers things, whether as a hobby, a profession, or an official duty.

Collector in a sentence

• The stamp collector kept his rarest specimens in a locked drawer.

• A debt collector phoned twice about the overdue account.

Where does collector come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb colligere, meaning 'to gather together', which was formed from com- 'together' and legere 'to gather, pick or read'. The past participle stem collect- gave Latin and later medieval Latin the agent noun collector, literally 'one who gathers'. English took the word through Old French and medieval Latin in the late 1300s, originally for an official who gathered taxes or dues. The hobbyist sense, someone who gathers stamps, coins or art, grew naturally from that core idea of gathering. The same legere root sits inside 'lecture', 'select' and 'elect', and the spelling trap is the quiet -or ending, since many writers instinctively reach for the more common -er.

How the word is built

• col- (together, from com-)
• lect (gather, from Latin legere)
• -or (agent suffix: one who does)