kogumiste

Kogumiste is the genitive plural form of the Estonian noun kogumine, meaning collection or gathering. It is used to refer to multiple collections or to the concept of collecting as a field of study.

Etymology and grammar: kogumine is formed from the verb koguma (to collect, to gather) with the nominalizing suffix -mine. The plural genitive form kogumiste marks possession or association with more than one collection, as in muuseumi kogumiste kirjeldus (the description of the museum's collections) or kogumiste väärtused (the values of the collections).

Usage: In museums, libraries, archives and scholarly writing, kogumiste appears in inventories, catalogs and descriptions of material holdings. The term is common in formal writing; in everyday speech kollektsioon is often used for a curated set of items, while kogumiste refers more broadly to the collections themselves.

Relation to other terms: kogumine denotes the activity of collecting; kollektsioon denotes a curated or presented set of items. Kogumiste is the plural genitive, used when speaking about the collections collectively. Example: Kogumiste korrastamine on oluline museaalide säilitamiseks (Organizing the collections is important for preserving the artifacts). Seotud mõisted on kogumine and kollektsioon.