file

• n. 文件；檔案；文件夾；銼刀
• vt. 提出；銼；琢磨；把…歸檔
• vi. 列隊行進；用銼刀銼
• n. (File)人名；(匈、塞)菲萊

來自拉丁語filum,線，詞源同 filament. 引申詞義文件，文獻，因古代文獻多用線縫合。

來自PIE*peig, 砍，切，字母g脫落，詞源同pigment, picture. 用做工具名。

file

file: The file for smoothing and rubbing [OE] and the file for storing things in [16] are quite different words. The former comes from a prehistoric Germanic *fikhalā (source also of German feile and Dutch vijl), which goes back ultimately to Indo-European *pik-, *peik-, denoting ‘cut’. The latter, on the other hand, comes from Old French fil, a descendant of Latin filum ‘thread’, which was applied to a piece of string or wire suspended from two points and used for hanging documents and records on for easy reference.

As methods of document storage and retrieval became more sophisticated, the word file followed them. The later file ‘(military) column’, first recorded at the end of the 16th century, probably represents a reborrowing from French, but it is ultimately the same word. Fillet [14] originated as a diminutive form of Latin filum.
=> filigree, fillet

file (v.1)

"place (papers) in consecutive order for future reference," mid-15c., from Old French filer "string documents on a thread or wire for preservation or reference" (15c.), earlier "to spin thread," from fil "thread, string" (12c.), from Latin filum "a thread, string; thread of fate; cord, filament," from PIE *gwhis-lom (cognates: Armenian jil "sinew, string, line," Lithuanian gysla "vein, sinew," Old Church Slavonic zila "vein"), from root *gwhi- "thread, tendon." The notion is of documents hung up on a line in consecutive order for ease of reference.

File (filacium) is a threed or wyer, whereon writs, or other exhibits in courts, are fastened for the better keeping of them. [Cowel, "The Interpreter," 1607]

Methods have become more sophisticated, but the word has stuck. Meaning "place among the records of a court or office" is from 1510s; of newspaper reporters sending in stories, 1954. Intransitive sense "march in a line (as soldiers do) one after another" is from 1610s. Related: Filed; filing.

file (n.2)

metal tool for abrading or smoothing, Old English feol (Mercian fil) "file," from Proto-Germanic *fihalo "cutting tool" (cognates: Old Saxon fila, Old High German fila, Middle Dutch vile, Dutch vijl, German Feile), probably from PIE *peig- (1) "to cut, mark by incision" (cognates: Old Church Slavonic pila "file, saw," Lithuanian pela "file;" see paint (v.)). Century Dictionary (1906) lists 60 named varieties of them.

file (n.1)

1520s, "string or wire on which documents are strung," from French file "a row" (15c.), noun derived from Middle French filer "string documents; spin thread" (see file (v.1)). The literal sense explains why from the beginning until recently things were generally on file (or upon file). The meaning "collection of papers systematically arranged for ready reference" is from 1620s; computer sense is from 1954. The sense "row of persons or things one behind another" (1590s) is originally military, from the French verb in the sense of "march in file." Meaning "line of squares on a chessboard running directly from player to player" is from 1610s.

file (v.2)

"to smooth or abrade with a file," early 13c., from Old English filian, from the source of file (n.2). Related: Filed; filing.

1. Substantial numbers of rank and file members ignored their union's advice.

有相當一部分普通員工不理睬工會的建議。

來自柯林斯例句

2. I looked your address up in the personnel file.

我在人事檔案裏找到了你的地址。

來自柯林斯例句

3. We were walking in single file to the lake.

我們正排成一列朝湖邊走去。

來自柯林斯例句

4. There was widespread support for him among the rank and file.

那些普通職員們都普遍支持他。

來自柯林斯例句

5. The FBI kept a voluminous file on Pablo Picasso.

聯邦調查局保存了有關巴勃羅·畢加索的大量檔案。

來自柯林斯例句