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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
Rachel Treisman, NPR, 7 Jan. 2025
While the scrutiny of Mr. Page was a minor part of the investigation — and the wiretap application was the only part that relied upon the dossier — Mr. Trump and his defenders sought to conflate the dossier and its flaws with the main investigation in the public mind.
—Charlie Savage, New York Times, 15 Dec. 2024
Eight years later, earlier this year, the media behaved quite differently when Iran hacked the Trump campaign and some prominent newsrooms were approached with materials from Vice President JD Vance’s dossier.
—Andrew Wallenstein, Variety, 11 Dec. 2024
Fox News Digital reached out to UNRWA media officials on numerous occasions for its response to the contents of IMPACT-se’s and U.N. Watch’s dossiers, about allegations that UNRWA schools were not adhering to UNESCO standards, and about Lazzarini’s refusal to meet with Neuer.
—Beth Bailey, Fox News, 8 Dec. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Dossier.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dossier. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.
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dossier
noun
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