The word college has an interesting origin dating back to the late fourteenth century when it referred to a “group of people performing a common function”. This original sense is similar to how we use the term in phrases like Electoral College, and the modern definition evolved from this concept. The word itself is derived from Latin collegium, which could mean “guild” or “society” and is also the root of colleague. The Latin collegium is a combination of cum, meaning “with”, and the verb legare, meaning “to choose”; suggesting that the idea behind a college was for partners to make decisions together. The root kom in Proto-Indo-European also means “with”, while legare has connections to words like league, legacy, allege, and legal, all stemming from the root leg meaning “collect” or “gather”.
