collector
(kəˈlɛktə(r))
Forms: 4 colector, 5 -our, 5–7 collectour, 7 Sc. -ore, 6– -or.
[ME. a. AF. co(l)lectour = F. collecteur, ad. late or med.L. collector, -ōrem, agent-n. f. colligĕre, collect-um to collect. (In classical L. collector was used only in the sense ‘fellow-reader’.)]
1. a. One who collects or gathers together; spec. one who gathers separate literary compositions, etc., into one book, a compiler (now rare or obs.), one who collects scientific specimens, works of art, curiosities, etc. collector's or collectors' item, collector's piece, an item of interest to collectors because of its excellence, rarity, etc.; also transf.
| 1582 Bentley Mon. Matrones Pref., To plaie the part of a faithfull collector by following my copies trulie. a 1679 J. Alting in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. lxxxix. 52 Added by the Collector of the Psalms as a concluding doxology. 1759 Hurd Chivalry & Rom. iv. (R.), Thanks to the curiosity of certain painful collectors, this knowledge may be obtained at a cheaper rate. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VIII. 32 Every collector of butterflies can shew undescribed species. 1823 D'Israeli Cur. Lit. (1858) III. 46 Erasmus is usually considered as the first modern collector [of proverbs]. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxx. 408 The specimens [of walrus] in the museums of collectors. 1910 J. Yoxall ABC about Collecting 82 Shall one collect in order to have a complete set of examples, or only to have an incomplete lot of fine ‘collector's pieces’? 1928 T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 625 Some swine would call your Blake a collector's piece. 1932 N.Y. Times Book Rev. 17 Jan. iv. 14/5 A charming fancy clothed in distinctive form, at a price, however, that puts the book in the class of collectors' items. 1937 Kipling Something of Myself iii. 67 It became a ‘collector's piece’ in the U.S. book-market. 1956 E. Grierson Second Man i. 9 Jaggers..was something of a collector's piece on the Circuit. 1967 J. Gardner Madrigal iii. 56 I'm not going to shoot up a thing like that. It's a bloody collector's item. |
b. An official who collects the tickets at a railway station.
| 1887 Times 19 Sept. 10/1 She saw the excursion [train] drawn up to let the collectors take the tickets. |
c. Of things: An apparatus, vessel, etc., used for collecting something (variously applied in techn. use); in Electr. and Bot. (see quots.) So collector ring, collector shoe (see quot. 1943).
| 1777 T. Cavallo Compl. Treat. Electr. 179 The prime conductor is set so, that the points of the collector are about half an inch from the surface of the cylinder. 1819 Pantologia, Collector, in electricity, is a small appendage to the prime conductor of the electrical machine, and generally consisting of pointed wires..Its office is to receive the electricity..from the excited electric. 1844 Faraday Res. Electr. I. §86 Conductors or electric collectors of copper and lead were constructed so as to come in contact with the edge of the copper disc. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. ix. 62 This mighty tub is the collector of one of the tributaries of the Mer de Glace. 1866 Treas. Bot., Collectors, the hairs found on the style of such plants as the Campanula, and which collect or brush out the pollen from the anthers. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. (ed. 4) 94 Models of Collectors..used in oyster culture. 1885 S. P. Thompson Electr. & Magn. 48 (Armstrong's Hydro-Electrical Machine) The collector consisted of a row of spikes placed in the path of the steam jets. 1909 Webster, Collector ring. 1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 176/2 Collector shoe. 1943 Gloss. Terms Electr. Engin. (B.S.I.) 41 Slip ring, (collector ring), a conducting ring rotating with a winding and connected thereto, and serving to make connection with an external circuit by means of a brush or brushes. Ibid. 109 Collector-shoe, a metal shoe for maintaining a sliding contact with a conductor-rail. |
d. One of the three electrodes of a transistor (see quot. 1960).
| 1948 Physical Rev. LXXIV. 230/2 The flow of holes from the emitter into the collector may alter the normal current flow from the base to the collector. 1955 Electronic Engin. XXVII. 121 The collector voltage appears as 91 mV. 1959 Ibid. XXXI. 330 The collector and emitter of the transistor are connected in series. 1960 Cooke & Markus Electronics & Nucl. Dict. 83/1 Collector (symbol C), an electrode at which a primary flow of carriers leaves the interelectrode region of a transistor. It corresponds to the anode of a tube. |
2. a. One who collects money; an officer employed to collect or receive money due, as taxes, customs, etc. Also in U.S. an official Receiver.
| c 1380 Antecrist in Todd 3 Treat. Wyclif 124 Take we heede..to bishopis, to colectors, to suffriganes. a 1450 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 452 Qwich messe peny & ferthing shal be resceyued be the colectour for the ȝere chosen. 1496–7 Act 12 Hen. VII, c. 13 §1 The seid orderours and assessours..shall name Collectours for the levye of the same aide and subsidie. a 1593 H. Smith Serm. (1637) 437 The word passeth like a Collector from one member to another, to gather tribute for God. 1611 Bible 1 Macc. i. 29 The king sent his chiefe collectour of tribute. 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2428/4 Captain Robert Bathurst, Collector, and John Gilloway, Supervisor, of Excise. 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 16 The collectors of the king's customs. 1794 Southey Wat Tyler 1, That..the foul Collector Durst with lewd hand seize on my darling child. 1885 Act 48 Vict. c. 16 §11 It shall not be lawful for any assessor..to be..a collector of poor rates. |
† b. A parish officer to collect alms for the poor.
| 1557 Order of Hospitalls D vij b, The Collectours of the parishes. 1564 in Strype Ann. Ref. I. xli. 463 To every parish belongeth..two collectors, to gather for the poor. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Wks. ii. 118/1 The poores neglector (O I pardon craue) Collector I should say, may play the knaue. 1764 Burn Poor Laws 114 In aid of the churchwardens, collectors for the poor were next appointed. 1857 Toulm. Smith Parish 178 Few Parish Officers are of older date than Collectors. |
c. An officer in some parts of England employed to make the returns of births, marriages, and burials. ? Obs.
| 1704 Stockwith Parish Acc., For a warrant for new colectors for births, weddings, burials and window money. |
3. In India, the chief adminstrative official of a zillah or district, whose special duty is the collection of revenue, but who also (except in Bengal) holds certain magisterial powers. (Yule.)
| 1772 Reg. of 14th May (Y.), The Supervisors should now be designated Collectors. 1786 Burke W. Hastings Wks. XI. 484 Warren Hastings..strongly objected to the appointment of any European collectors. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 520 The Collector was instructed to hear and decide disputes relating to the rents and possession of land, which had previously been cognizable by the civil judge alone. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair iv. (Y.), Such a magnificent personage as the Collector of Boggleywallah. |
† 4. Formerly in the University of Oxford, one of two bachelors of arts annually chosen by the proctors to perform certain academic functions: see quot. 1726. Obs.
| 1655 Wood Life (1848) 61 He..appointed A. W. collector in Austins. 1706 Hearne Collect. 9 Nov. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) I. 305 When Bach. of Arts he was Collector. 1726 Amherst Terræ Fil. xlii. 232 The collectors (who are two in number) are chosen out of the determining batchelors by the two proctors, each proctor chusing one; and their business is to divide the determiners into certain Classes, and to appoint to every one what school he shall dispute in. Ibid. 233 The collectors therefore, having it in their power to dispose of all the schools and days in what manner they please, are very considerable persons, and great application is made to them for gracious days and good schools. |