repository

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin repositōrium,^[2][3][4][5] partly borrowed from Middle French repositoire (“a storehouse”), according to Barnhart, Etymonline, Hoad and Skeat;^[6][7][8][9] the OED only compares the French word.^[2] In classical Latin a repositōrium was a stand on which the courses of a meal were served; in post-classical Latin it also meant a tomb (4th century) and a store or storehouse (5th century).^[2][6][7] The Latin noun comes from repositus, the past participle of repōnō (“to put back, put away, store”), with the suffix -ōrium,^[2][3][5][7] and the verb from re- (“back, again”) and pōnō (“to place”).^[9] The same verb gave English repose, in the sense "to put away, store".^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A vessel or other place in which things are put, especially for storage: 1485, in Caxton's translation of the story of Charlemagne.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

From a container the word soon came to be used of people and of abstract things.^[2][8] In 1592, in Robert Greene, it meant a person to whom secrets are confided, a confidant;^[2] from 1639 it was also a person, place or thing thought of as a store of something immaterial, such as knowledge or authority.^[2][7][8] Seventeenth-century writers also used it for a place where souls are kept before or after life (1638) and for a burial vault (1639).^[2][10] From 1658 it named a room or building where curiosities or works of art are shown, a museum, now rare.^[2][10] A shop or warehouse where goods are kept for sale was a repository from 1725 in the OED, by 1759 in Etymonline;^[2][7] the word appeared in the titles of periodicals from 1759.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as a place where anything is safely laid up.^[11] In 18th-century cant it was a lockup or a sponging house for debtors.^[2][12] An adjective repository was used from 1683 for "used for storage", later, from 1830, in the army for the repositioning of heavy guns removed from their carriages;^[2][10] in medicine, repository drugs, absorbed slowly to act over a long period, date from 1950.^[3]

Timeline

• 1485 – a receptacle or place for storing things, in Caxton.^[2][6]
• 1592 – a confidant, in Robert Greene.^[2]
• 1638 – a place where souls are held.^[2]
• 1639 – a burial vault; a store of something immaterial.^[2]
• 1658 – a museum.^[2]
• 1671 – a place where something accumulates.^[2]
• 1725 – a warehouse or shop.^[2]
• 1785 – in cant, a lockup or sponging house, in Grose.^[2][12]
• 1830 – adjective, of repositioning heavy guns.^[2]
• 1950 – adjective, of a slowly absorbed drug.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place, room or container where things are put or kept, especially for safekeeping.^[4][3][2]
2. A place where something is found or builds up in large quantities: an underground repository for spent nuclear fuel.^[2][10]
3. A person, place or thing seen as holding a store of something immaterial, such as knowledge or tradition: The old shepherd was a repository of local lore.^[2][10]
4. A person to whom secrets are entrusted; a confidant.^[4][2][10]
5. A burial vault or tomb; also a container for the relics of the dead.^[4][3][2]
6. A building or room where a collection is shown; a museum (now rare).^[4][3][2]
7. A warehouse or shop where goods are kept for sale.^[4][2]
8. (obsolete, cant) A lockup or sponging house for debtors or criminals.^[2][12]

Adjective

1. Of a drug: made to act over a long period by being absorbed slowly.^[3]
2. (historical, military) Relating to the repositioning of heavy guns taken off their carriages.^[2][10]

Word family

• repo

Related words

• deposit
• posit
• reposit
• repose
• depository
• position

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com