dossier

Etymology

It is borrowed from French dossier (“bundle of papers”),^[2][3][4][5] from dos (“back”),^[3][4][6] from Vulgar Latin *dossum, a variant of Latin dorsum (“back”),^[3][7][8][4] with the suffix -ier.^[7][9][10] The bundle is said to have been so called because it bore a label on its back,^{[3][4][5][11]} or possibly because the bulge of a mass of bundled papers resembles the curve of a back,^[3] which is the OED's explanation.^[2] Old French dossiere meant a back-strap of a horse's harness,^[3] and the Old French form of dossier had the sense of English dosser,^[7] which Weekley explains as a basket carried on the back.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bundle of documents about some matter: by 1868 as a French word in English,^[3] and as an English word from 1880, in the Contemporary Review.^[2][4][9]

Semantic evolution

The OED's sense is a bundle of papers on some matter, especially one about a person,^[2] and Weekley notes how the French "bundle of papers" came to mean a record of an individual.^[8] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster define it more generally as a collection of documents or papers on a subject,^[4][9] and Collins and the ODE as papers containing information about a particular person or subject.^[12][11]

Timeline

• 1868 – used as a French word in English.^[3]
• 1880 – a bundle of papers or documents on some matter, especially about a person.^[2][4][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A collection of documents, records or reports about a particular person, subject or case; a file: The agency kept a thick dossier on the journalist.^[12][9][2]

Related words

• dorsal
• endorse
• dosser
• doss

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins