Corroborate vs cooperate

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Grammarist

Corroborate means to strengthen a theory, idea, finding or fact with supporting evidence. Corroborate may be used as an adjective or verb, related words are corroborates, corroborated, corroborating, corroboration, corroborative, corroboratory, corroboratively, corroborator.  Corroborate comes into the English language in the 1530s, meaning to give legal confirmation, from the Latin word corroborare meaning to strengthen, to invigorate.

Cooperate means to work together, to assist, to fulfill a request. Cooperate is an intransitive verb, which is a verb that does not take an object. Related words are cooperates, cooperated, cooperating, cooperator. It was once common to find cooperate spelled with a diaeresis, which is two dots poised over the second vowel in a word to show the that the second vowel is pronounced separately, in another syllable, as in coöperate. In the era of streamlined typography, it is rare to see the diaeresis employed anymore. The word cooperate comes from Late Latin word cooperari, which means to work together with.

Examples

Before granting any further audience to AI for instance, the Nigerian Army should establish what roles it played in the 1991 Iraqi Invasion which got a boost because AI was quick to corroborate the stories that Iraqi troops were throwing babies out of incubators in Kuwait to steal medical devices (it turned out their key witness was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador put to the task by a PR firm). (The News Nigeria)

“We have reason to believe that this particular phone may contain a video that would show part of a murder, or the end of a murder, but certainly would help to corroborate witnesses who were present,” said Essex spokeswoman Carrie Kimball Monahan. (The Boston Herald)

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London analyzed the spatial patterns of Banksy’s artworks in Bristol and London in an attempt to corroborate the theory that a man named Robin Gunningham is the artist. (Newsweek)

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to cooperate in forming a new constitution, after the CHP recently abandoned the Constitutional Conciliation Committee. (The Daily Sabah)

“One who today wants to spy for America, the Great Satan, and coöperates with this country is guilty, a traitor, and is eligible for punishment.” (The New Yorker)