Ar"chive (#), n.; pl. Archives (#). [F. archives, pl., L. archivum, archium, fr. Gr. government house, archives, fr. the first place, government. See Archi-, pref.]

1. pl.

The place in which public records or historic documents are kept.

Our words . . . . become records in God's court, and are laid up in his archives as witnesses. Gov. of Tongue.

2. pl.

Public records or documents preserved as evidence of facts; as, the archives of a country or family.

[Rarely used in sing.]

Some rotten archive, rummaged out of some seldom explored press. Lamb.

Syn. -- Registers; records; chronicles.

 

© Webster 1913.