recollect

Recollect is a verb meaning to recall something from memory or to bring a past event back into one’s mind. It can also mean to gather or assemble again in a figurative sense, but in contemporary use the memory sense is predominant. The related noun is recollection, which refers to the act or faculty of remembering, or to something remembered.

Usage: Recollect is more formal and literary than recall. In everyday speech, remember is preferred. Phrases such as "I do not recollect" are common in older or formal prose. It is used transitively: "to recollect the events of the day." It can also appear in "recollecting oneself," meaning to regain composure after surprise or distress.

Etymology: The word comes from re- (again) plus collect, via Old French recollecter and Latin recollectus, originally meaning to gather again; the sense "bring back to mind" developed in English later. Related forms include recollection (noun) and recollective (adjective).