collation

English

Etymology

From Middle English collacioun, collation, from Old French collation, from Latin collatiō, from the participle stem of cōnferō (“to bring together”). Not related to English collateral.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈleɪʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -eɪʃən
• Homophone: colation

Noun

collation (countable and uncountable, plural collations)

1. Bringing together.
   1. The act of bringing things together and comparing them; comparison. [from 14th c.]
      • November 8, 1717, The Bishop of Rochester, letter to Alexander Pope

        I return you your Milton, which, upon collation, I find to be revised, and augmented, in several places

      • 1826, [Mary Shelley], The Last Man. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

        The collation of philosophical opinions, the study of historical facts, the acquirement of languages, were at once my recreation, and the serious aim of my life.

   2. The act of collating pages or sheets of a book, or from printing etc. [from 19th c.]
   3. A collection, a gathering. [from 20th c.]
      • 2010 April 29, Will Dean, The Guardian:

        It's fantastic, as is so much of Forgiveness Rock Record, a collation of so many talents that it's practically bursting at the seams.

2. Discussion, light meal.
   1. (obsolete) A conference or consultation. [14th–17th c.]
   2. (in the plural) The Collationes Patrum in Scetica Eremo Commorantium by John Cassian, an important ecclesiastical work. (Now usually with capital initial.) [from 13th c.]
      • 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC, book I, page [55]:

        A certain abbot, named Moses, thus testifieth of himself in the Collations of Cassianus, that he so afflicted himself with much fasting and watching, that sometimes, for two or three days together, not only he felt no appetite to eat, but also had no remembrance of any meat at all […]

   3. A reading held from the work mentioned above, as a regular service in Benedictine monasteries. [from 14th c.]
      • 1843, TD Fosbroke, British Monachism, page 52:

        When the hymn was over the Sacrist was to strike the table for collation, and the Deacon to enter with the Gospel, preceded by three converts, carrying the candlestick and censer.

   4. The light meal taken by monks after the reading service mentioned above. [from 14th c.]
   5. Any light meal or snack. [from 16th c.]
      • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 138:

        Her first glance was one of triumph—her next was one of mingled admiration and gratitude for Louis; and, accepting his offered hand, they led the way to the banquet prepared in the Palais Orion,—a favourite garden-house, where they often had collations when the party was but small, which was the case to-day.

      • 2008, Tim Hayward, The Guardian, 13 May 08:

        Yes, absolutely; supper, at least in English tradition, was a cold collation, left out by cook before retiring.

3. (ecclesiastical) The presentation of a clergyman to a benefice by a bishop, who has it in his own gift.
4. (civil law, inheritance) The blending together of property so as to achieve equal division, mainly in the case of inheritance.

   Synonym: hotchpot

5. (civil law, inheritance, Scotland) An heir's right to combine the whole heritable and movable estates of the deceased into one mass, sharing it equally with others who are of the same degree of kindred.
6. (obsolete) The act of conferring or bestowing.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Empire”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     Not by the collation of the king […] but by the people.

7. (ecclesiastical) Presentation to a benefice.
8. (databases) The specification of how character data should be treated stored and sorted.
9. (textual criticism) The process of establishing a corrected text of a work by comparing differing manuscripts or editions of it; also used to describe the work resulting from such a process.

Usage notes

See collocate § Usage notes.

Derived terms

• cold collation
• collational
• collationer
• miscollation
• recollation

 

Translations

bringing together

• Hungarian: (comparison) összevetés (hu), egybevetés (hu), (pages or sheets) leválogatás, összehordás
• Maori: whakahiatotanga
• Spanish: colación (es) m

light meal

• Greek: κολατσιό (el) n (kolatsió)
• Hungarian: uzsonna (hu)
• Irish: colláid f, scroid f
• Portuguese: pequeno almoço (pt)
• Spanish: colación (es) f

See also

• collocation

Verb

collation (third-person singular simple present collations, present participle collationing, simple past and past participle collationed)

1. (obsolete) To partake of a collation, or light meal.
   • 1658 May 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for May 20, 1658]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

     I […] collationed in Spring Garden.

Translations

(obsolete in English) to partake of a collation, or light meal

Anagrams

• allotonic

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin collātiōnem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɔ.la.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

collation f (plural collations)

1. (used in collation des grades) the process of granting an academic degree
2. (North America, Belgium) a light snack usually taken between breakfast and lunch (often employed as the analogue of English brunch)

Derived terms

• collationner

Further reading

• “collation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle French

Noun

collation f (plural collations)

1. discussion

Descendants

• French: collation

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (collation)

Old French

Noun

collation oblique singular, f (oblique plural collations, nominative singular collation, nominative plural collations)

1. discussion

Descendants

• Middle French: collation
  • French: collation
• → English: collation
• → Middle Irish: coláision

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (collation)