Collect shows a Latin prefix assimilating into its root: com, "together," plus legere, "to gather," giving colligere and then the past participle collectus. The m of com became an l to match the l that followed, and English inherited the doubled letter. That is the same process behind accept, appear, immediate and suffer — a doubled consonant near the start of a long word is usually a swallowed prefix.
The root legere, "to gather," is one of the most productive in the language. It gives lecture, legend, elect, select, intelligent and, at a distance, logic — the idea of gathering extending naturally to gathering with the eye, hence reading, and to gathering with the mind. English took collect in the early 1400s through Old French, transitive at first; the intransitive sense of things accumulating on their own is not recorded until 1794.
collect (v.) early 15c., "gather into one place or group" (transitive), from Old French collecter "to collect" (late 14c.), from Latin collectus , past participle of colligere "gather together," from assimilated form of com "together" (see com- ) + legere "to gather," from PIE root *leg- (1) "to collect, gather." The intransitive sense "gather together, accumulate" is attested from 1794. Related: Collected ; collecting . As an adjective or adverb meaning "paid by the recipient," it is attested from 1893, originally with reference to telegrams. also from early 15c.
collect came in through Latin, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| a consonant that sounds doubled just after a prefix | double it. The prefix assimilated to the root: ad+cept, ad+prove, in+mediate, com+lectaccept, approve, immediate, collect, suffer |
What gives it away on the page
| a doubled consonant after a short prefix | The prefix assimilated to the root: ad+cept, ad+prove, in+mediate, com+lect.accept, approve, immediate, collect, suffer |