Meaning

noun a body of people who settle far from home but maintain ties with their homeland; inhabitants remain nationals of their home state but are not literally under the home state's system of government

noun a group of organisms of the same type living or growing together

noun one of the 13 British colonies that formed the original states of the United States

originEtymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- Proto-Indo-European *kʷélh₁-e-ti Proto-Italic *kʷelō Latin colō Latin colōnus Latin colōniader. Middle English colane English colony From Middle English colane, colonye, from Latin colōnia (“colony”), from colōnus (“farmer; colonist”), from colō (“till, cultivate, worship”), from earlier *quelō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to move; to turn…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0