View source for Collegial - collegian - collegiate

'''Collegial''', '''collegian''' and '''collegiate''' are three [[adjective]]s (with [[substantive]] meanings). The three mean broadly the same - 'to do with a [[college]]'. There may be something to be said, in precise academic writing, for maintaining a distinction - but you are unlikely to find many writers who do. All three are derived from the [[noun]] '''[[college (clarification of meanings)|College]]''', which in itself presents problems of meaning.

It may be best to reserve particular words for particular uses.
*'''collegiate''' should be the most normal in academic English. Use it for all contexts in which you mean 'as an official body' - a '''collegiate decision''' is one in which a college has agreed a common position. In American, rather than British, English, it commonly means 'to do with institutions of [[Higher Education]]': '''collegiate sport''' means what in Britain might be 'University Championships'. '''Collegiate''' can also be used for any of the other [[adjectival]] meanings associated with 'College'.

*'''collegial''' means 'of, or belonging to, a [[college]]'. It may be more rigorous to use the [[possessive]]: 'a college's buildings' may be preferable to  'collegial buildings'. Otherwise, '''collegiate''' might be the best first choice for any [[adjective]] 'to do with a college'.
*'''collegian''' (which is the oldest recorded in ''[[OED]]'' amongst these three) is best used only as a [[noun]], to mean 'person belonging to [''often'' a student in] a college'. (In certain local contexts, '''colleger''' and '''collegeman''' may also be used. See [[College (clarification of meanings)]].) Some special uses exist:
**In the seventeenth century, a sect of the [[Baptist Church|Arminian]] branch of Christianity was formed known as '''Collegiants''' or '''Collegians''' (because their term for their Sunday meetings was 'College'). Should you be writing about such a recondite subject, the term '''Collegiant''' (or its [[Latin]] equivalent ''Collegianus'', plural ''Collegiani'') may be preferable, as being less ambiguous.
**In the nineteenth century, '''collegian''' was also used as a slang term for 'a convict', 'a prisoner', with the cynical implication that prisons are just schools for completing the education of criminals.
**'The Collegian' is quite a common name for undergraduate and other in-house periodicals produced in places of learning with the word 'College' in their titles.

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[[category:academic English]]
[[category:pedantic usage]]
[[category:clarification of meanings]]