file

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A named collection of data stored on a computer.

   She saved the document as a new file on her laptop.

2. 2
   noun

   A folder or set of papers and records about a particular person or subject, kept together.

   The police keep a file on every reported case.

3. 3
   verb

   To officially submit a document or request to an office or court.

   They decided to file for divorce after years of arguing.

4. 4
   verb

   To walk forward one behind another in a line.

   The students filed quietly into the classroom.

5. 5
   verb

   To rub something smooth with a small rough tool.

   She filed her nails until they were perfectly even.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

File has three separate histories. The smoothing tool is the oldest, inherited from Old English. The folder sense, recorded in late Middle English, ultimately comes from Latin filum “thread,” because papers were kept in order by threading them on string; the late 16th-century sense “a line of people” was borrowed again through French, based on the image of people strung out in a row.

From Middle English file, fyle, from Old English fēl, fēol (“file”), from earlier fīil, from Proto-Germanic *finhlō, *finhilō (“file, rasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“to adorn, form”). Cognate with West Frisian file (“file”), Dutch vijl (“file”), German Feile (“file”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary