Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
recollect, recall, remember (vv.)
These synonyms all have to do with recovering information once known. Remember is the generic and most commonly used word, meaning “to recover something from the memory and bring it up to consciousness and usefulness,” as in Can you remember her telephone number? Recollect means the same thing: “to recover information that once was available for use,” as in I can only faintly recollect what she looked like. Some people insist that conscious effort is inherent in recollect, as well as in recall: I’m trying to recall what day it was. Of the three, recollect is perhaps the most folksy or old-fashioned: it seems to go somehow with verbs like reckon and calculate and the like. But remember, recollect, and recall are all Standard.
