• colligate •
Printable Version Pronunciation: kah-lê-gayt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb, transitive
Meaning: 1. To tie or bind together, to interconnect. 2. To find a principle that explains several things previously thought to be unrelated, to pull together in a single explanation.
Notes: The noun for today's word is, expectably, colligation. Several adjectives are available, including colligate itself, pronounced a bit differently [kah-lê-gêt] "tied together", colligable "capable of being colligated", and collegative "tending to collect together", though this adjective is used mostly in chemistry to describe situations that depend on the quantity of molecules rather than their quality or nature (size, weight, etc.)
In Play: We have seldom seen or heard today's Good Word used in its literal sense since the 17th century but that doesn't preclude its use today: "The necklace comprised a perfect set of pearls colligated by a silk thread." Today colligate is used to refer to abstract tying together: "The evidence in the murder case was substantial but the prosecutor could not colligate them so that pointed to a single suspect."
Word History: Today's Good Word comes from Latin colligare "tie or bind together", based on con "(together) with" + ligare "to tie, bind". If you find it remindful of collect, you have good reason. The past participle of colligere is collectus, which English appropriated as an entirely different word. Latin prefixes ending on N like con underwent a process called 'assimilation', that is to say, they took on the traits of the consonant following them. When added to words beginning on L and R, they became identical, as in correct and collect. Before consonants formed with the lips, like M, B, and P, N became M, as in comment, combine, and compute. The prefix in- behaved similarly, giving us words like impolite, irreverent, and illegal. (Thank you David Ross for suggesting the word that colligates all the different strands free knowledge that make up today's Good Word.)
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