Dossier

How to spell dossier

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce dossier

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dossier mean?

1. nounA collection of documents containing detailed information about a person, subject, or event.

Dossier in a sentence

• The lawyer reviewed the entire dossier before the hearing.

• Each candidate has a confidential dossier held by the recruiter.

Where does dossier come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes straight from French dossier, which named a bundle of papers gathered into a single file. The French word was built on dos, meaning 'back', which itself descends from the Latin dorsum, the term for the back or spine of the body. The connection is wonderfully literal: a dossier was originally a packet of documents with a label written on the bulging back or spine, so the papers could be identified at a glance, much like the spine of a book today. English adopted the word in the nineteenth century, keeping the French spelling intact, which is exactly why it traps writers: the doubled 's' and the silent, French-looking '-ier' ending feel foreign to English habits. The same dorsum root survives in 'dorsal', the fin on a creature's back, a useful reminder that a dossier is named for its back.

How the word is built

• doss- (from French dos: back, from Latin dorsum)
• -ier (noun suffix denoting a thing associated with)