Repositories

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Locations or containers where items, data, or resources are kept safe for future use
2. Designated spaces or mediums used to hold and preserve collections or information
3. Areas or receptacles used for accumulating and maintaining stored materials or data

Etymology: The plural "repositories" is simply the plural of "repository," so the story belongs to the singular. The noun comes from Latin "repositorium," a storage place or container, built on "repōnere," "to put back" or "to put away." That verb is the root of "reposit," the past-participle stem "reposit-" combined with the suffix "-ory," which marks a place where something is kept. English took the word in the Middle Ages in the form "reposytorye," so its sense of a secure place for things to be stored was present from the start, long before it came to describe digital databases. Its Latin ancestor "repositorium" was used as the basis for a later Medieval Latin adjective, "repositorius," meaning "used for storage," which shows how naturally the idea of putting something back in its place became the idea of keeping it for later.

Synonyms: stores, depositories, repositories, archives, safes