Archive \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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)