archive
[ahr-kahyv]
- Usually archives. documents or records relating to the activities, business dealings, etc., of a person, family, corporation, association, community, or nation.
- archives, a place where public records or other historical documents are kept.
- any extensive record or collection of data: The encyclopedia is an archive of world history. The experience was sealed in the archive of her memory.
- Digital Technology.
- a long-term storage device, as a disk or magnetic tape, or a computer directory or folder that contains copies of files for backup or future reference.
- a collection of digital data stored in this way.
- a computer file containing one or more compressed files.
- a collection of information permanently stored on the Internet: The magazine has its entire archive online, from 1923 to the present.
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- to place or store in an archive: to vote on archiving the city's historic documents.
- Digital Technology. to compress (computer files) and store them in a single file.
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Origin of archive
1595–1605; orig., as plural < French archives < Latin archī(v)a < Greek archeîa, orig. plural of archeîon public office, equivalent to arch(ḗ) magistracy, office + -eion suffix of place
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for archives
Contemporary Examples
Last year, the Home Office said the dossier had mysteriously disappeared from the archives.
These posts are still available in archives that are only viewable to privileged members of the forum.
And, as a result, an interesting and important text has burst out of the archives and into public consciousness.
But it continues to astound me that there are troves of archives that have not been looked at.
Filed away within the annals of the New York Historical Society, it escaped the notice of those who oversaw the archives.
Historical Examples
In the middle of the court is the donjon, which contains the archives and the treasure.
English VillagesP. H. Ditchfield
A deed once deposited in the archives of the Notary is sacred.
The False ChevalierWilliam Douw Lighthall
His papers and diaries are in the archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Old Fort SnellingMarcus L. Hansen
Miss Wright, however, did not use the documents found in other archives.
Archives and documents are searched for details about his life and works.
RembrandtJosef Israels
archive
- a collection of records of or about an institution, family, etc
- a place where such records are kept
- computing data transferred to a tape or disk for long-term storage rather than frequent use
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- to store (documents, data, etc) in an archive or other repository
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Word Origin
C17: from Late Latin archīvum, from Greek arkheion repository of official records, from arkhē government
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for archives
n.
c.1600, from French archif (16c.), from Late Latin archivum (singular), from Greek ta arkheia "public records," plural of arkheion "town hall," from arkhe "government," literally "beginning, origin, first place" (see archon).
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archive
v.
1819 (implied in archived), from archives. Related: Archiving.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper