Collective | Vocabulary
About this video
Collective is an adjective meaning something done together by everyone in a group. It is built from Latin parts: co- (with, together), -lect from legere (to pick or gather) and -ive (tending to). It can also be used, less often, as a noun meaning a group that has come together to do something.
You'll be able to
- explain what collective means and use it in a sentence.
- break collective into its parts co-, -lect and -ive and say what each means.
- find other words that use these word parts.
Key words
- collective
- Done together by everyone in a group; as a noun, a group working together.
- co- / con- / com-
- A Latin prefix meaning with or together, as in cooperate.
- -lect
- A word part from Latin legere, meaning to pick or gather, as in collect and elect.
- -ive
- A suffix meaning tending to, which makes a word an adjective.
- adjective
- A describing word, like collective in 'a collective decision'.
Transcript
- [David] It's time to come together, wordsmiths. The word we'll go through in this video is "collective." Collective, it's an adjective. It means, something done together by everyone in a group, like, "We made a collective decision that sea slugs should be our mascot."
We did it together, right? This word comes from Latin roots, the co- part means with, or together, like cohabitate, to live together, or cooperate, to work together. You might also see it as con, or com. The -lect part comes from legere, which is Latin for "to pick," or "to gather."
It's also Latin for "to read," but that's another story. So gathered together, that's what it means to collect something, right? Collect, gather together. And this last part, I-V-E, -ive, that's what makes it an adjective, a describing word, it means tending to.
So, therefore, something that's collective tends to stick together, right? Gathers things together, does things as a group. So using these three elements, what other similar words can you come up with? Co-, or con-, lect, or -ive. I'll put on some music. Meet me back here in 10 seconds.
(energetic music) Okay. Here's what I came up with. Using CON, I have conduct, to guide, like a train conductor, or an orchestra conductor. Con, together, duct, to lead. You're leading an orchestra together. You're keeping everyone on the train together. Using LECT, I got elect, right?
To vote for someone, to pick them. Using -ive, I got impressive, an adjective that describes something as worthy or memorable, something that might impress us, right? Let's use collective in a sentence. "Because its members loved arguing, the Debate Club struggled to make collective decisions."
Right? They couldn't even decide what to order for dinner as a group. Little takeout menu in the center. You can also use collective as a noun, although that's a little bit less common, it's another way to say group. Think of like, a farmer's collective, or a yarn collective, right?
It's a group of people that have come together to accomplish something. Together, we fly, wordsmiths. What we do, we do collectively. And together, I think we can learn anything. David, out.
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