Collegiality

A colleague (Latin collega " office mate ", so outdated and " Kollega ") is an official or professional companion in the German language. In Swiss German language and partly in the southern German area and Ruhr area the word mate is equated with the word friend of the High German used (also in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian ).

The original use of the term can be traced back to the era of the Roman Republic, in which a mandatory understudy ( collegiality ) of the upper offices ( magistratus ) was intended to prevent the concentration of power and the mutual control.

Formerly the word was used almost exclusively in higher education - on the one hand between academics, on the other hand also towards and between students. It comes from the college, the community structure of a corporation. Participation in the faculty ( college or college ) a university or a portion of it was referred to as collegiate.

The word colleague has now naturalized in many other areas - from office colleagues classmates up in the working-class milieu. The term is now also very common between doctors, physicians and medical students as well as among lawyers. Other students speak now rarely their fellow students with "colleague " or " colleague " to.

Until the Orthographic Conference of 1901 the spelling College was common. This notation is today especially in the name of law firms (eg Smith & Colleagues ) encountered, which Altehrwürdigkeit and tradition should be suggested.