FILE. Originally a string or thread (through the Fr. flu and file, from Lat. filurn, a thread) ; hence used of a device, originally a cord, wire or spike on which letters, receipts, papers, etc., may be strung for convenient reference. The term has been ex tended to embrace various methods for the preservation of papers in a particular order, such as expanding books, cabinets, and in genious improvements on the simple wire file which enable any single document to be readily found and withdrawn without removing the whole series (see OFFICE APPLIANCES). From the devices used for filing the word is transferred to the documents filed, and thus is used of a catalogue, list, or collection of papers.
File is also employed to denote a row of persons or objects arranged one behind the other. In military usage a "file" is the opposite of a "rank," that is, it is composed of a (variable) num ber of men aligned from front to rear one behind the other, while a rank contains a number of men aligned from right to left abreast. Up to about 1600 infantry were often drawn up 16 deep, one front rank man and the 15 "coverers" forming a file. The number of ranks and, therefore, of men in the file diminished first to ten (1600), then to six (1630), then to three (1700), and finally to two (about 1808 in the British army, 1888 in the Ger man) . This formation is still retained for parade purposes in the British Army, extended order with wide intervals between men being used in the field, but most foreign armies have now adopted even for parade purposes a formation based on single file (see ORDER). In the 17th century a file formed a small command under the "file leader," the whole of the front rank consisting therefore of old soldiers or non-commissioned officers. In the above it is to be understood that the men are facinE to the front or rear. If they are turned to the right or left so that the com pany now stands two men broad and fifty deep, it is spoken of as being "in file." From this come such phrases as "single file" or "Indian file" (one man leading and the rest following singly be hind him). The use of verbs "to file" and "to defile," implying the passage from fighting to marching formation, is to be de rived from this rather than from the resemblance of a marching column to a long flexible thread, for in the days when the word was first used the infantry company whether in battle or on the march was a solid rectangle of men, a file often containing even more men than a rank.
File is also the name of a common tool used for abrading or smoothing ; see FILE MANUFACTURE. In this sense, the word used has a different derivation, from O.E. Pot, from an Indo European root meaning to mark or scratch.
or the names given to fishes of the genus Balistes (and Monacanthus) of the family Balistidae and sub-order Balistiformes, inhabiting all tropical and subtropical seas. The body is compressed and not covered with ordinary' scales, but with small juxtaposed scutes. The first of the three dorsal spines is very strong, roughened in front like a file and hollowed out behind to receive the second much smaller spine, which, besides, has a projection in front, at its base, fitting into a notch of the first. Thus these two spines can only be raised or depressed simultaneously, in such a manner that the first cannot be forced down unless the second, which has been compared to a trigger, has been previously depressed. Both jaws are armed with eight strong incisor-like and sometimes pointed teeth, by which these fishes are enabled to break off pieces of madrepores and other corals, on which they feed and to chisel a hole into the hard shells of Mollusca, in order to extract the soft parts. In this way they do much injury to pearl-fisheries. Monacanthus has only one dorsal spine and a velvety skin. Some 3o different species are known of Balistes and about So of Monacanthus.