file

file1 (faɪl)
—n
1.	a folder, box, etc, used to keep documents or other items in order
2.	the documents, etc, kept in this way
3.	documents or information about a specific subject, person, etc: we have a file on every known thief
4.	an orderly line or row
5.	Compare rank a line of people in marching formation, one behind another
6.	any of the eight vertical rows of squares on a chessboard
7.	computing a named collection of information, in the form of text, programs, graphics, etc, held on a permanent storage device such as a magnetic disk
8.	obsolete a list or catalogue
9.	(Canadian) a group of problems or responsibilities, esp in government, associated with a particular topic: the environment file
10.	on file recorded or catalogued for reference, as in a file
—vb
11.	to place (a document, letter, etc) in a file
12.	(tr) to put on record, esp to place (a legal document) on public or official record; register
13.	(tr) to bring (a suit, esp a divorce suit) in a court of law
14.	(tr) to submit (copy) to a newspaper or news agency
15.	(intr) to march or walk in a file or files: the ants filed down the hill
[C16 (in the sense: string on which documents are hung): from Old French filer, from Medieval Latin fīlāre; see filament]
'filer1
—n

file

zila "vein"). The notion is of documents hung up on a line like drying laundry. Methods have become more sophisticated, but the word has stuck. The noun first attested in Eng. in the military sense, "line or row of men," 1590s, from M.Fr. filer in the sense of "spin out (thread), march in file." Related: Filed; filing. The noun meaning "arranged collection of papers" is from 1620s; computer sense is from 1954.

file

"metal tool," O.E. feol (Mercian fil), from P.Gmc. *finkhlo (cf. O.H.G. fila, M.Du. vile, Ger. Feile), probably from PIE *pik-/*peik- "cut" (cf. Skt. pimsati "hews out, carves," L. pingere "to paint," O.C.S. pila "file, saw," Lith. pela "file;" see paint). The verb in this

sense is from early 13c. Related: Filed; filing.

file   (fīl)  Pronunciation Key  A collection of related data or program records stored as a unit with a single name. Files are the basic units that a computer works with in storing and retrieving data.

(pro)file definition in. to walk about and show something off; to walk carefully in a way that gets attention. (As if showing one's profile.) : Look at Albert profiling along! What a nerd.

file definition

file system
An element of data storage in a file system.
The history of computing is rich in varied kinds of files and file systems, whether ornate like the Macintosh file system or deficient like many simple pre-1980s file systems that didn't have directories. However, a typical file has these characteristics:
* It is a single sequence of bytes (but consider Macintosh resource forks).
* It has a finite length, unlike, e.g., a Unix device.
* It is stored in a non-volatile storage medium (but see ramdrive).
* It exists (nominally) in a directory.
* It has a name that it can be referred to by in file operations, possibly in combination with its path.
Additionally, a file system may support other file attributes, such as permissions; timestamps for creation, last modification, and last access and revision numbers (a` la VMS).
Compare: document.
(2007-01-04)

file

see in single file; on file; rank and file.