depository

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a place, building, or institution where things are deposited for storage, safekeeping, or preservation

   The national archive serves as a depository for government records.

2. 2
   noun

   figuratively, a person, organization, or system that receives and preserves information or experience

   Mill argued that the state could act as a central depository for knowledge gained from local experiments.

From Medieval Latin depositorium ("a place for depositing"), from Latin depositum, the neuter past participle of deponere ("to put down, deposit"). The institutional and figurative senses extend the basic idea of a place where something is entrusted for safekeeping.

Topics