Etymograph

English

file

File comes from Old French fil ‘thread’, from Latin fīlum ‘thread’, ultimately from PIE *gʷʰiH-(s-)lo-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰiH-(s-)lo-‘sinew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fī(s)lomreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfīlum‘thread’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fil‘thread’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1604–1605file

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰiH-(s-)lo-‘sinew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fī(s)lomreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfīlum‘thread’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400fil‘thread’
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1604–1605file

Earliest quotation: c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, All’s Well, that Ends Well: “It is upon a file with the duke's other…”

Linked words

through Proto-Italic *fī(s)lom

filamentous, 42 more

through Latin fīlum ‘thread’

annihilation, annihilate, filament, nihilism, nihilist, nihil, 44 more

through Old French fil ‘thread’

fillet, 1 more

Another origin of file

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʷʰiH-(s-)lo-‘sinew’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*fī(s)lomreconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEfilum‘thread’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEfīlāre
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentfiler‘to spin out, arrange one behind another’
  6. French, derivedc. 1600–presentfile
  7. Englishtodayfile

Another origin of file

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*peyḱ-‘to adorn, form’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*finhlō‘rasp, file’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150fēl
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500file
  5. Englishtodayfile

Another origin of file

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*puH-‘to be rotten’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*púH-lo-sreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*fūlaz‘dirty’reconstructed
  4. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*fūlijaną‘to befoul, make dirty’reconstructed
  5. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*fūlijan‘to make foul’reconstructed
  6. Old Englishc. 450–1150fȳlan‘to defile, make foul’
  7. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500filen‘to defile’
  8. Englishtodayfile

Today it means

noun A collection of papers collated and archived together.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰiH-(s-)lo- / file

Shirt and support for this word