collaborer

Collaborer is a French verb meaning to work jointly with one or more people toward a common goal. It describes cooperative activity across fields such as science, business, government, and the arts. In everyday French, it is used with the person or group being worked with, for example, collaborer avec quelqu’un.

Etymology: The word comes from Old French collaborer, from Latin collaborare, formed from com- 'together' and laborare 'to work'.

Forms and related terms: The noun forms include la collaboration (the act of collaborating), le collaborateur (a male collaborator), and la collaboratrice (a female collaborator). The adjective collaboratif or collaborative describes something related to collaboration. The verb is conjugated regularly: je collabore, tu collabores, il collabore, nous collaborons, vous collaborez, ils collaborent.

In English usage, the verb form is to collaborate. The noun form is collaborator. The form collaborer is occasionally encountered as a direct borrowing in scholarly or historical texts, but it is uncommon in contemporary English outside such contexts. In historical contexts, a “collaborator” may refer to someone who cooperates with occupying authorities or an adversarial regime, a usage that may carry negative connotations depending on the circumstances.

See also: collaboration, collaboration in the workplace, teamwork, cooperative work.