File

[L. Lat. filum, filacium.] In practice. A thread, string or wire, upon which writs and other exhibits in courts and offices, were formerly fastened, or filed for the more safe keeping of them together.

Cowell.

Spelman, voc.

Filacium

The paper itself, or a number of papers so filed.

Tomlins.

A file is a record of the court.

1 Lill. 112.

The papers filed appear to have been originally pierced through with (trajecta,) and strung upon the thread or wire employed, as is still sometimes done in offices.

Spelman.

They are now usually arranged in bundles, a thread or string being used on the outside to fasten them together. In modern practice, a file is a bundle of papers, each paper being similarly folded and endorsed, and tied together. The phraseology of the old practice however is still retained in the common expressions "to put on file," "to take off the files." See To File, Filum.