different between packrat vs collector

English

Wikispecies

Alternative forms

• pack rat, pack-rat

Etymology

pack +? rat

Pronunciation

Noun

packrat (plural packrats)

1. Any of several species of rodent in the genus Neotoma, most commonly the bushy-tailed woodrat (Neotoma cinerea), that gather vegetation and other materials into shelters (middens).
2. One who tends to acquire various objects; one who collects, accumulates or has trouble throwing things away; a hoarder.

Translations

Verb

packrat (third-person singular simple present packrats, present participle packratting, simple past and past participle packratted)

1. (colloquial, transitive, intransitive) To hoard things.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:amass

Anagrams

• Rat Pack, rat pack

English

Alternative forms

• collecter
• collectour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English collectour, from Anglo-Norman collectour, from Late Latin collector, from Latin collig? (“to gather together”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: k?-l?k't?r
• (General American) IPA^(key): /k??l?kt?/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /k??l?kt?(?)/
• Rhymes: -?kt?(?)

Noun

collector (plural collectors)

1. A person who or thing that collects, or which creates or manages a collection.

   He is an avid collector of nineteenth-century postage stamps.

   That old piano is just a big dust collector.
2. A person who is employed to collect payments.

   She works for the government as a tax collector.

   • 1668 July 3rd, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Hou?toun” in The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 547

     Andrew Hou?toun and Adam Mu?het, being Tack?men of the Excize, did Imploy Thomas Rue to be their Collector, and gave him a Sallary of 30. pound Sterling for a year.

3. (electronics) The amplified terminal on a bipolar junction transistor.
4. A compiler of books; one who collects scattered passages and puts them together in one book.

   • Volumes […] without any of tthe collector's own reflections.

5. (historical) One holding a Bachelor of Arts in Oxford, formerly appointed to superintend some scholastic proceedings in Lent.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Todd to this entry?)

6. A major sewer which collects sewerage from a number of smaller branch sewers
7. A mafioso whose task is to collect protection money from small businesses

Derived terms

Related terms

• collect
• collection

Translations