colegi

Colegi is a Romanian noun meaning a person who shares work or study with another; it is commonly translated as colleague or classmate, depending on context. It can refer to a coworker in a workplace or a fellow student in an educational setting. In Romanian, the masculine plural is colegi and the feminine plural is colege, and the form used depends on the gender composition of the group (mixed or all-male uses colegi; all-female uses colege).

Origin and cognates: The term derives from Latin collega 'colleague', through the Romance language family. It is cognate with similar words in other languages, such as the English 'colleague' and Spanish 'colega'.

Usage notes: The word appears in both formal and informal Romanian. Common phrases include 'un coleg bun' (a good colleague) and 'colegii mei' (my colleagues). It can refer to people in professional settings as well as to fellow students in a school or university context. Agreement in gender and number follows Romanian grammar rules.

Related concepts: While 'colegi' is used in Romanian to denote peers in work or study, related terms in other languages reflect parallel ideas of partnership and fellowship, such as 'collega' in Italian or 'colega' in Spanish. The term is distinct from similar-sounding words in other languages and should be interpreted within Romanian usage.