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Collect vs Acquire - What's the difference?

collect | acquire |

In transitive terms the difference between collect and acquire

is that collect is to infer; to conclude while acquire is to gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own, as, to acquire a title, riches, knowledge, skill, good or bad habits.

As an adjective collect

is to be paid for by the recipient, as a telephone call or a shipment.

As an adverb collect

is with payment due from the recipient.

As a noun collect

is the prayer said before the reading of the epistle lesson, especially one found in a prayerbook, as with the Book of Common Prayer.

collect

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) collecten, from (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)
  • To gather together; amass.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=(Henry Petroski)
  • , title= Geothermal Energy , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame.}}
  • To get; particularly, get from someone.
  • To accumulate a number of similar or related (objects), particularly for a hobby or recreation.
  • To form a conclusion; to deduce, infer. (Compare (gather), (get).)
  • * 1992 , (Hilary Mantel), A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 292-3:
  • the riot is so great that it is very difficult to collect what is being said.
  • * John Locke
  • which sequence, I conceive, is very ill collected .
  • To collect payments.
  • To come together in a group or mass.
  • To collect objects as a hobby.
  • To infer; to conclude.
  • * South
  • Whence some collect that the former word imports a plurality of persons.

    Adjective

    (-)
  • To be paid for by the recipient, as a telephone call or a shipment.
  • It was to be a collect delivery, but no-one was available to pay.

    Adverb

    (-)
  • With payment due from the recipient.
  • I had to call collect .

    Derived terms

    * call collect * collect one's thoughts * collect one's wits * collect up * collectible * collection * collector * recollect, recollection

    Etymology 2

    (Wikipedia) From (etyl) .

    Noun

  • (en noun) (sometimes capitalized)
  • (Christianity) The prayer said before the reading of the epistle lesson, especially one found in a prayerbook, as with the Book of Common Prayer.
  • He used the day's collect as the basis of his sermon.

    acquire

    English

    Verb

    (acquir)
  • To get.
  • To gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own, as, to acquire a title, riches, knowledge, skill, good or bad habits.
  • * (Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)
  • No virtue is acquired in an instant, but step by step.
  • * (William Blackstone) (1723-1780)
  • Descent is the title whereby a man, on the death of his ancestor, acquires his estate, by right of representation, as his heir at law.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), chapter=3/19/2, title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
  • , passage=Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house?; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something?; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.}}

    Synonyms

    * attain, earn, gain, obtain, procure, secure, win

    Derived terms

    * acquired taste