Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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 : WordNet®

archive
     n : a depository containing historical records and documents
         [syn: {archives}]

archive
     v : put into an archive [syn: {file away}]

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

archive
     
        1.  A single file containing one or (usually)
        more separate files plus information to allow them to be
        extracted (separated) by a suitable program.
     
        Archives are usually created for software distribution or
        {backup}.  {tar} is a common format for {Unix} archives, and
        {arc} or {PKZIP} for {MS-DOS} and {Microsoft Windows}.
     
        2.  To transfer files to slower, cheaper
        media (usually {magnetic tape}) to free the {hard disk} space
        they occupied.  This is now normally done for long-term
        storage but in the 1960s, when disk was much more expensive,
        files were often shuffled regularly between disk and tape.
     
        3.  {archive site}.
     
        (1996-12-08)