colleague
Definitions
General English
Banking
- noun a person who works in the same organisation as another
Commerce
- noun a person who does the same type of work as another
Origin & History of “colleague”
A colleague is literally ‘one chosen or delegated to be or work with another’. It comes via French collègue from Latin collēga, a compound noun formed from com- ‘with’ and lēg-, the stem of lēgāre ‘choose’ (whence also English legation and delegate) and lēx ‘law’ (source of English legal, legitimate, etc). Despite the similarity in spelling, it is not related to English league.
