collect

Etymology 1

From Middle English collecten, a borrowing from Old French collecter, from Medieval Latin collectare (“to collect money”), from Latin collecta (“a collection of money, in Late Latin a meeting, assemblage, in Medieval Latin a tax, also an assembly for prayer, a prayer”), feminine of collectus, past participle of colligere, conligere (“to gather together, collect, consider, conclude, infer”), from com- (“together”) + legere (“to gather”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”).

verb

1. (transitive) To gather together; amass.
   Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. 2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4
   Suzanne collected all the papers she had laid out.
   The team uses special equipment to collect data on temperature, wind speed and rainfall. File:The team uses special equipment to collect data on temperature, wind speed and rainfall.ogg
2. (transitive) To get; particularly, get from someone.
   A bank collects a monthly payment on a client's new car loan. A mortgage company collects a monthly payment on a house.
3. (transitive) To accumulate (a number of similar or related objects), particularly for a hobby or recreation.
   John Henry collects stamps.
   I don't think he collects as much as hoards.
   My friend from school has started to collects mangas and novels recently
   Over the course of 60 years, W E Hayward collected thousands of railway-related objects, including clothing, buttons, cutlery, timetables, tickets, name, number and builder's plates, books and booklets, cuttings and extracts from publications, letters, photographs and postcards. June 17 2020, Stefanie Foster, “A window into the railways of the past”, in Rail, page 54
4. (transitive, now rare) To form a conclusion; to deduce, infer. (Compare gather, get.)
   […] which consequence, I conceive, is very ill collected. 1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book II, Chapter XVII, section 20
   From the latter passages we may collect, that the expression "he that cometh" was, with the Jews, a kind of title distinguishing the Messiah c 1725, John Walker, William Burton (of Bloomsbury), Essays and correspondence, chiefly on Scriptural subjects
   'I collect,' said Miss Crawford, 'that Sotherton is an old place, and a place of some grandeur. In any particular style of building?' 1814, Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
   the riot is so great that it is very difficult to collect what is being said. 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial, published 2007, pages 292–3
5. (intransitive, often with on or against) To collect payments.
   He had a lot of trouble collecting on that bet he made.
6. (intransitive) To come together in a group or mass.
   The rain collected in puddles.
7. (transitive) To infer; to conclude.
8. (transitive, of a vehicle or driver) To collide with or crash into (another vehicle or obstacle).
   The truck veered across the central reservation and collected a car that was travelling in the opposite direction.

adj

1. To be paid for by the recipient, as a telephone call or a shipment.
   It was to be a collect delivery, but no-one was available to pay.

adv

1. With payment due from the recipient.
   I had to call collect.

Etymology 2

From Middle English collecte, from Ecclesiastical Latin collēcta (“assembly; collect”), originally designating the gathering at the beginning of a liturgical celebration.

noun

1. (Christianity) The prayer said before the reading of the epistle lesson, especially one found in a prayerbook, as with the Book of Common Prayer.
   He used the day's collect as the basis of his sermon.