archive
n. countablen. a collection of historical documents or records that provide information about a place, institution, or group of people. It can also refer to the physical place where these items are kept safely.
n. a collection of historical records or documents providing information about a place, institution, or group of people; also the physical location where such materials are stored. Often used in the plural to refer to the body of records itself.
The researcher spent all day in the city archive.
The university maintains an extensive digital archive of local ecological data collected over the last fifty years.
Historians spent decades cataloging the royal archive to reconstruct the diplomatic correspondence of the late eighteenth century, revealing previously unknown alliances between the two nations.
First appears c. 1603 in a translation by Philemon Holland. From French archive(s), from Latin archīvum, from Ancient Greek ἀρχεῖον (arkheîon, “town hall”).
Often used in the plural ('the archives') when referring to a large collection of records or the department that manages them.