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Co-locate vs. collocate
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Comments
Please do not hesitate to contact us at noslangues.ourlanguages@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca if you have any comments or suggestions about this feature.
Question:
Is there a difference between the words collocate and co-locate? I want to use the word in a context where radio services are sharing an antenna tower. Is the hyphenated version a modern usage of collocate?
Answer:
Indeed, there is a difference between the words co-locate and collocate. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2004 edition) defines co-locate as follows: share a location or facility with something else. As for collocate, it lists the following meanings:
- place together or side by side;
- arrange; set in a particular place;
- (Linguistics) (of a word) habitually associate with one another.
As you are writing about radio services sharing a facility (antenna tower), you should go with co-locate.
You may be interested to know that the words co-locate and collocate have evolved separately. Collocate is much older than co-locate: the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary explains that collocate was first used in the early 1500s, whereas co-locate was coined in the 1960s. Collocate combines the prefix col (to combine) with locus (place) and the verbal suffix ate. Co-locate took one extra step—it was formed by combining the prefix co (to combine) with locate, which was derived from locus and ate.
