the.com/document
Proof that something happened, written down so memory can't lie about it later.
means A piece of writing (or, now, a file) that records information so it can be consulted, proven, or referred back to later.
from From Latin documentum, 'a lesson, proof, or example,' built on docere, 'to teach' — the same root that gives us doctor and doctrine. For centuries a 'document' was literally a teaching or warning example; only later did it narrow to mean a written record used as evidence, the sense that stuck.
- original sense
- meant proof or warning, not paper
- legal twist
- documents can be digital, oral, or carved stone
- verb life
- as a verb, means to prove with evidence
- oldest survivors
- clay tablets count as documents too