The Latin word colligĕre came to Spanish as colegir . The term has two meanings in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ).
The first meaning mentioned by the RAE refers to "to gather ." In this sense, to collect implies to agglutinate, unite or pile up elements . Regarding its etymology, we can note that the aforementioned Latin word is composed of the following two parts: con- , a prefix that gives us the idea of "together, whole" and the verb legere , which translates as "to read, to choose."
Note that colegir is not a common term in everyday speech, but the other verbs cited in the previous paragraph are preferred to express this meaning.
Another more common use of “colegir” is linked to making an inference : to obtain a conclusion from something else. “colegir,” in this case, is a synonym for “ infer .” For example: “From the agreement announced by the club, it can be inferred that the player agreed to lower his financial demands.” “With the suspension of the concert already confirmed, it will have to be inferred that the artist has not yet recovered from his health problems.” “The judge considered that, based on the evidence collected, it is possible to infer that the murderer acted with premeditation.”
Let's say an actor has a falling out with a famous film and television producer . From then on, he never gets another job in the entertainment industry. This means that the actor in question will no longer be asked to take part in films or series. According to several journalists, it can be inferred that the confrontation with the producer led him to this situation .
It is important to note, however, that the conclusions drawn from this inference are not always true or correct . If someone notices that the majority of citizens in three countries that are organized and governed according to the democratic system live in poverty, he or she might conclude that democracy is detrimental to economic development or that poor nations live in democracy . However, a more in-depth analysis reveals that there are democratic regions of great wealth and poor territories governed by dictatorships.
This consequence also occurs when using some of the synonyms of the term in question, which we can see below: deduce, conclude, induce, follow and conjecture . We know that it is not advisable to get carried away by generalization, to assume information based on vague or difficult-to-verify data , but despite this we do it every day. To a certain extent it is not dangerous, but it is a trait of our species, which is closely related to curiosity: we want to know everything, to be aware of what is happening around us.
However, when we put another person's happiness at risk by gathering certain information , it is time to stop and think more before acting. The yellow press is perhaps the group that most frequently engages in this lack of contrast: every day it publishes news focused on the lives of celebrities that do not intend to inform the public of useful things, but to insult their protagonists, generally with data that they have not verified but inferred from gossip or directly invented.
While the above-mentioned example of democratic countries and the assumption that poverty prevails in all of them only leads to a misconception, the publication of a news story accusing a person of having cheated on their partner with another person simply because it is assumed that this means that they spent an evening together, can deeply hurt the protagonists .