Meaning

noun a set of related records (either written or electronic) kept together

noun a line of persons or things ranged one behind the other

noun office furniture consisting of a container for keeping papers in order

originFrom Middle English file, fyle, from Old English fēl, fēol (“file”), from earlier fīil, from Proto-Germanic *finhlō, *finhilō (“file, rasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“to adorn, form”). Cognate with West Frisian file (“file”), Dutch vijl (“file”), German Feile (“file”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fil (“file”), Icelandic þjöl (“rasp, file”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0