Collate comes from Latin collātus, past participle of conferre 'to bring together', from com- 'together' + lātus 'borne, brought' (a suppletive participle of ferre 'to carry'). The historical trail runs through collātus in Latin and ferre in Latin. Morphologically, collate is transparent: it draws on Latin collātus, past participle of conferre 'to bring together', from com- 'together' + lātus 'borne, brought' (a suppletive participle of ferre 'to carry'). Used as a verb, collate now means "collect and arrange items in proper order, especially for comparison", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as collation, collator, and collated and related forms such as relate, translate, and oblate. The result is a borrowed or transmitted form whose modern spelling carries a compact record of its route into English.