Word of the Day

: June 2, 2021

colleague

noun KAH-leeg

What It Means

: an associate or coworker typically in a profession or in a civil or ecclesiastical office and often of similar rank or status : a fellow worker or professional

colleague in Context

Rochelle's creativity, professional demeanor, and ability to get things done soon earned her the respect of her colleagues.

"Without an option to drop by a colleague's desk to ask a casual question, teams felt there should be more process conversations, but also that these chats could be exhausting. Some teams moved away from using video meetings to less-demanding communication tools like Slack." — The New York Times, 24 Apr. 2021

Did You Know?

Which of the following words come from the same source as colleague: college, legacy, collaborate, allegation, collar, relegate, delegate? It might be easier to guess if you know that the ancestor in question is legare, a Latin verb meaning "to choose or send as a deputy or emissary" or "to bequeath." All of the words in the list above except collaborate (which comes from the Latin collaborare, meaning "to labor together") and collar (from collum, collus, Latin for "neck") are descendants of legare.