Colleague - college

Colleague and college are two words that may be suggested in place of each other by a spell-checker when faced with a typing error when writing either. They are rarely confused in speech, as they are pronounced differently: colleague has a 'hard' '-g-', like that in 'get' ('COLL-eeg' IPA: /'ˈkɒ liːg/; while college has a soft '-g-', like that in 'bridge' ('COLL-idj', IPA: /ˈkɒ lɪdʒ/.

• Colleagues are people who work in the same
  • company or business or institution, etc, such as "My colleagues in the University of Hull"; or
  • kind of work or profession or trade, for example "My colleagues in education"; or
  • in the same political institution, usually a democratically elected one, such as "The Prime Minister's Cabinet colleagues.
• Colleges are places or institutions, not always restricted geographically. See more at college (institution).

For another potential typing or spelling error, see Collage - college.

Oddly enough, the two words share a common etymology.

Colleagues (from the Latin col-, 'together', and legĕre, 'to choose'), were originally the people elected to serve together, ast the same time.

From this came college. OED records its development thus: "collēgium colleagueship, partnership, hence a body of colleagues, a fraternity, f[rom] collēga COLLEAGUE". Fraternity in this has the sense "A social association of the students or alumni of a college or university" common in American universities.