Word of the Day

: April 3, 2010

dossier

noun DOSS-yay

What It Means

: a file containing detailed records on a particular person or subject

dossier in Context

The suspect's dossier listed two arrests for grand theft auto and several more for breaking and entering.

Did You Know?

Gather together various documents relating to the affairs of a certain individual, sort them into separate folders, label the spine of each folder, and arrange the folders in a box. "Dossier," the French word for such a compendium of spine-labeled folders, was picked up by English speakers in the late 19th century. It comes from "dos," the French word for "back," which is in turn derived from "dorsum," Latin for "back." Our word "dorsal" ("situated on the back"), as in the dorsal fin of a whale, comes from the same Latin source.