collection meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

collection

noun

/kəˈlɛkʃən/

Etymology From Middle English colleccioun, collection, from Old French collection, from Latin collēctiō, collēctiōnem, from collēctus, from colligō (“collect together”), composed of con- + legō (“bring together, gather, collect”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather, collect”). Equivalent to collect + -ion.

10 senses

1A set of items or amount of material procured, gathered…
2A set of pitch classes used by a composer.
3The activity of collecting.
4A set of sets; used because such a thing is in general…
5A gathering of money for charitable or other purposes…
6Debt collection.
7The act of inferring or concluding from premises or…
8The jurisdiction of a collector of excise.
9A set of college exams generally taken at the start of the term.
10The quality of being collected; calm composure.

A set of items or amount of material procured, gathered or presented together.

The attic contains a remarkable collection of antiques, oddities, and random junk.
The asteroid belt consists of a collection of dust, rubble, and minor planets.

4 more examples

This year's Summer Collection will include a wide range of evening wear.
He has a big collection of stamps.
He has a superb coin collection.
Secondly, I continue to base my concepts on intensive study of a limited suite of collections, rather than superficial study of every packet that comes to hand.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:

Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music A set of pitch classes used by a composer.

The "collectional information" one receives is ambiguous since the collection { C, E, F, G, A } occurs in the key of C and in the key of F.2005, Neil Minturn, The Last Waltz of The Band, page 112:
In fact, students are often taught that specific collections—diatonic, octatonic, and whole-tone, etc.—typify these composers' compositional language.2009, Brian Moseley, “Form and Transpositional Combination in George Crumb's Lux Aeterna”, in Bruce Quaglia, Jack Boss, editors, Musical Currents from the Left Coast, page 174:

1 more example

Simply put, the realm of available collections in a largely diatonic environment is much smaller than it is in truly atonal one.2012, Marguerite Boland, John Link, Elliott Carter Studies, page 22:

The activity of collecting.

Collection of trash will occur every Thursday.

Mathematical analysis, Mathematics, Sciences, Set theory, Topology A set of sets; used because such a thing is in general too large to comply with the formal definition of a set.

A gathering of money for charitable or other purposes, as by passing a contribution box for donations.

The people here are very good to each other, too. When someone's house burned down, when someone was in the hospital, they took up collections for the people.1976 February 7, Rose Flower, quoting Jimmy McGrath, “Playland: The Friendliest Place In Town”, in Gay Community News, volume 3, number 32, page 13:

Law Debt collection.

Obsolete The act of inferring or concluding from premises or observed facts; also, that which is inferred.

We may safely say thus, that wrong collections have been hitherto made out of those words by modern divines.1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC:

UK The jurisdiction of a collector of excise.

Plural normally A set of college exams generally taken at the start of the term.

Oxford University

The quality of being collected; calm composure.