![]() See full entry for 'dossier' Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Tech giants Google, Microsoft and Facebook are all applying the lessons of machine learning to translation, but a small company called DeepL has outdone them. "James Bond" increases almost parallel to the use of the word "dossier" according to Google Ngrams. r/ us / d.si. Definition of 'dossier' dossier (dsie, -i ) countable noun A dossier is a collection of papers containing information on a particular event, or on a person such as a criminal or a spy. The growing popularity of such novels during this era may have led the public to associate a word that was nearly unseen before the turn of the century with government agents who are above the law. Several popular spy novels were published around the same time: The Riddle of the Sands(1903), Kim(1901), The Secret Agent(1907) Or if you prefer Google's simplified chart:Īs for how it came to be connected to espionage, my guess is that this happened some time during the turn of the century. ![]() Old French dossiere meant "back-strap, ridge strap (of a horse's harness)." Supposedly so called because the bundle bore a label on the back, or possibly from resemblance of the bulge in a mass of bundled papers to the curve of a back. The oxford dictionary goes so far as to note the connotation of espionage and crime before the generic bundle of papers.Ī set of papers containing information about a person, often a criminal, or on any subjectĪ file containing detailed records on a particular person or subjectġ880, from French dossier "bundle of papers," from dos "back" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin dossum, variant of Latin dorsum "back" (see dorsal). ![]() ![]() "Dossier" is generally associated with espionage, which itself entails deception and other morally questionable acts, so it's no surprise that it has a negative connotation to you.Įven notes that it is not only a bundle of papers, but "especially a complete file containing detailed information about a person or topic."Ī collection or file of documents on the same subject, especially a complete file containing detailed information about a person or topic. ![]()
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