Files

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /faɪlz/

Definitions

1. Documents or records stored digitally or on paper ; to submit paperwork or documents for official handling ; to organize or arrange items systematically
2. Collections of stored information in any format ; the act of formally handing in documents to an authority ; the process of sorting objects into a structured sequence
3. Physical or digital sets of data or papers ; the action of delivering required documents to an office ; the method of classifying or grouping items methodically

Etymology: The word "files" is simply the plural of "file," and the most striking part of the story is that "file" has several unrelated origins that happen to share one spelling. The tool sense, a rasp for smoothing metal, comes from Old English "fēl," which descends from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "file" or "rasp," and it is cognate with German "Feile" and Dutch "vijl." A separate Old English verb, "fȳlan," meant "to make foul" and gave Middle English "filen," "to defile," a sense that has nothing to do with tools. The office sense is different again. It comes from French "filer," "to spin out, arrange one behind another," which is ultimately from Latin "fīlum," "thread." The idea was of documents strung on a thread, and the notion of arranging papers in order carried over into English, so that a file became a record kept in sequence and, later, a stored digital record.

Synonyms: documents, records, archives, folders, papers