colleague: [16] A colleague is literally ‘one chosen or delegated to be or work with another’. It comes via French collègue from Latin collēga, a compound noun formed from com- ‘with’ and lēg-, the stem of lēgāre ‘choose’ (whence also English legation and delegate) and lēx ‘law’ (source of English legal, legitimate, etc). Despite the similarity in spelling, it is not related to English league. => college, delegate, legal, legitimate