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Gather together various documents relating to the affairs of a certain individual, sort them into separate folders, label the spine of each folder, and arrange the folders in a box. Dossier, the French word for such a compendium of spine-labeled folders, was picked up by English speakers in the 19th century. It comes from dos, the French word for "back." The verb endorse (which originally meant "to write on the back of") and the rare adjective addorsed ("set or turned back to back," a term primarily used in heraldry) are also derived, via the Anglo-French endosser and French adosser respectively, from dos. The French dos has its origins in the Latin dorsum, a word which also gave English the adjective dorsal ("situated on the back"), as in "the dorsal fin of a whale."
Examples of dossier in a Sentence
Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 27 Nov. 2024
Following his publication of the dossier on Substack last month, Klippenstein shared that his X account had been suspended for violating the platform’s rules on posting private information.
—Liam Reilly, CNN, 11 Oct. 2024
The Enquirer did not receive the dossier, but did review the document shared by Klippenstein.
—Victoria Moorwood, The Enquirer, 1 Oct. 2024
The ethics investigation — details of which have been leaking out in a steady drip since his nomination last week — was only the most salacious aspect of his dossier.
—Kevin Rector, Los Angeles Times, 21 Nov. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near dossier
Cite this Entry
“Dossier.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dossier. Accessed 18 Dec. 2024.
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dossier
noun
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