repositoryn.
/rᵻˈpɒsᵻt(ə)ri/, U.S. /rəˈpɑzəˌtɔri/, /riˈpɑzəˌtɔri/ I. Literal senses.† 3. cant. A place for the (typically temporary) detention of debtors or criminals; spec. = sponging-house n. Obsolete. rare.
1.
a. A place or receptacle in which things are or may be deposited, esp. for storage or safe keeping.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > receptacle or container > [noun]
receivera1398
resetc1400
receipta1425
receptaclec1425
repository1485
receptorya1500
pot1503
container?1504
hold1517
containing?1541
continent?1541
receptable1566
nest1589
conceptacle1611
keep1617
house1625
reception1646
inholder1660
conceptaculum1691
penholder1815
holder1833
carrier1855
compactum1907
the mind > possession > supply > storage > [noun] > place where anything is or may be stored
aumbry1356
promptuary?a1425
repository1485
staple1523
magazine1583
reposement1592
repertory1593
rendezvous1608
reserve1612
conservatory1624
reconditory1633
dormerc1640
stowagea1641
depositum1646
repositary1650
magazine storehousea1654
deposit1719
reservoir1739
battery1748
depository1750
storage1775
depot1795
depositary1797
repertorium1797
rua1831
stowaway1913
1485 W. Caxton tr. Thystorye & Lyf Charles the Grete sig. bvij/1 Of the floures charles put a parte in a reposytorye.
1570 P. Levens Manipulus Vocabulorum sig. Iii/1 A Repositorie, repositorium.
1592 R. Dallington tr. F. Colonna Hypnerotomachia f. 56v A stately repositorie or cupbord, in fashion like vnto a shippe.
1647 Earl of Clarendon Contempl. Psalms in Tracts (1727) 514 Those tears..he keeps in a repository that is never out of his sight.
1698 J. Fryer New Acct. E.-India & Persia 250 On the Outside of this City are Repositories for Snow and Ice.
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 471. ¶2 It is like those Repositories in several Animals, that are filled with Stores of their former Food.
1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters i. 128 At the end of Rathbone-place..water is..thrown into an open repository, where it stands.
1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. x. 234 Losing the keys of all your most private repositories.
1862 J. H. Burton Book-hunter (1863) 56 Stored away in some forgotten repositories, these miscellaneous relics still remain.
1884 Catholic Dict. 282/1 A vase in the form of a dove..was in the East and in France..used as a repository for the Blessed Sacrament.
1929 Needlecraft Apr. 16/2 We no longer use our walls as a family-portrait album or repository for souvenirs.
1986 Computerworld Focus (Nexis) 19 Feb. 13 Beyond that, there is what we call the data warehouse or repository: a facility to gather, manage and make corporate, departmental and personal data accessible to users.
1990 T. Hillerman Coyote Waits xiii. 178 The back porch was screened, a repository for stored items.
1997 New Scientist 19 Apr. 5/1 Under a policy of ‘substitution’, the company was planning to store medium-level waste from its clients in a British repository and return a radiologically equivalent amount of high-level waste.
b. A room or building in which interesting artefacts, works of art, etc., are gathered for display, a museum (now rare and historical); (in later use also) an (official) institution in which documents, books, or manuscripts are deposited; an archive, a library.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > manifestation > showing to the sight > exposure to public view > an exhibition > [noun] > museum
museum1653
repository1658
musée1861
1624 H. Wotton Elements Archit. 98 I will..adde a caution or two, about the disposing of Pictures... First, that no Roome bee furnished with too many, which in truth were a Surfet of Ornament, vnlesse they bee Galleries, or some peculiar Repository for Rarities of Art.]
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words (at cited word) More peculiarly, by the Architects, such places as are built for the laying up of rareties, either in picture or other art are called Repositories.
1667 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 486 There being such a stone in their [sc. the Royal Society's] Repository.
1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 21 Nov. (1965) I. 282 The Elector's Palace is very handsome, and his repository full of Curiositys of Different kinds.
1756 P. Browne Civil & Nat. Hist. Jamaica ii. i. 39 I have seen a specimen of the red sort..in the repository of the royal garden at Paris.
1837 Legal Observer 18 Mar. 389/2 The ‘General Record Office’..shall for all purposes, be the legal repository of all records, rolls, books, papers and documents at any time therein deposited.
1876 G. E. Voyle & G. de Saint-Clair-Stevenson Mil. Dict. (ed. 3) 337/2 The repository at Woolwich forms a school of instruction for both officers and men on first joining the artillery.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 959/1 The most important repository of English records is the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London.
1991 Maclean's 17 June 20/1 Ottawa's Canadian War Museum—the national repository of military artifacts from past wars.
2000 J. A. Conforti Imagining New Eng. v. 245 The town jail was restored as the ‘Old Gaol’, a repository where the material remains of Old York were secured under lock and key.
c. A place in which things are kept or offered for sale; a warehouse; a shop. Now chiefly: a shop selling Catholic religious goods (rare). Cf. store n. 12.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > trading place > warehouse > [noun]
warehouse1349
repository1725
society > trade and finance > trading place > place where retail transactions made > [noun] > shop
shopc1390
seldc1450
cheap-house1606
bursea1661
swag1676
repository1725
store1731
warehouse1754
sale-shop1757
shoppie1773
emporium1803
mercantile1984
1725 J. Houstoun Some Observ. Geogr. 52 Your annual ships arrive with a fresh supply of Goods, and proper European Necessaries for the Use of your Settlements; which wou'd make your Forts the common Repositories and Markets of the coast.
1754 Connoisseur No. 38 (1755) 227 Catalogue of Males and Females to be disposed of in Marriage to the Best Bidder, at Mr. Keith's Repository in May Fair.
1759 A. Murphy Let. 22 July in D. Garrick Private Corr. (1831) I. 101 But yours is Beaver's Repository, and there you must judge whether they [sc. the horses] are marketable, or likely to tire before they come to the winning-post.
1767 J. Wedgwood Let. 23 May in Sel. Lett. (1965) 53 I spent a great part of the day in search of a Room for my repository.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Repository,..Livery stables where horses and carriages are sold by auction.
1801 S. Trimmer Œcon. Charity ii. 119 By furnishing different articles for sale at Repositories.
1807 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life II. xxi. 278 Paying dear for your economy in having made purchases at a ‘Cheap Repository’.
1831 W. Youatt Horse xxi. 368 In London, and in most great towns, there are repositories for the periodical sale of horses by auction.
1831 W. Youatt Horse xxi. 369 The principal repositories in London.
1902 F. Templeman Catholic xv. 181 It resembled the show-room of a Catholic repository very tastefully arranged.
2009 www.stjohnbosco.co.uk 25 Aug. (O.E.D. Archive) We have a very well stocked shop (referred to as a Repository in Catholic churches) for all your needs.
2. A place in which a person is put to rest: cf. repose v.2 3a.
a. A place in which souls reside or are held (before or after life).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > purgatory
purgatory?c1225
purging place?c1425
the land of whipperginnie1594
repository1638
middle world1691
1638 D. Featley Stricturæ in Lyndomastygem ii. 58 in H. Lynde Case for Spectacles In St. Austines hidden repositories, some soules have ease, and some paine.
1662 H. More Coll. Philos. Writings (ed. 2) Pref. Gen. p. xxiv Whether the Souls be..sent from God out of some hidden Repository where they did praeexist.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 56. ¶2 There is a Tradition among the Americans, that one of their Countrymen descended in a Vision to the great Repository of Souls.
1756 M. Pilkington Passages in Moses & Prophets 17 The Jews..had the Knowledge of a Future State, and of the separate Repositories of departed Souls.
1864 W. R. Alger Crit. Hist. Doctr. Future Life i. i. 9 Some writers have held that all souls were created by the Divine fiat at the beginning of the world, and laid up in a secret repository.
1878 Unitarian Rev. & Relig. Mag. Dec. 590 The repository of souls shall be opened, and the just come forth in joy and harmony, knowing that the end of the ages is come.
1914 Univ. Colorado Stud. Nov. 165 Honestly interpreted..these articles of the creed assert that on the third day Jesus' soul rose from a repository of dead souls beneath the surface of the earth.
2006 A. Røkkum Nature, Ritual, & Soc. Japan's Ryukyu Islands i. 32 A cavity in the northern sky is a repository of souls of those yet to be born.
b. A place in which a dead body is deposited; a vault, a sepulchre; a tomb.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > disposal of corpse > burial > grave or burial-place > burial-chamber > [noun] > repository or ossuary
bone houseOE
charnel1430
carnarya1552
charnel house1556
ossuary1600
golgotha1604
repository?1639
conditory1706
ossuarium1765
reposit1792
skullery1818
?1639 Θρηνοικος xx. 407 Hee takes care of their very bodyes too, to lay them up sweetly to rest, in Repositories, or Dormitories.
1663 A. Wood Life & Times (1891) I. 476 Buried..at the high altar in a vault or repository.
1706 J. Potter Archæologia Græca (ed. 2) I. ii. ii. 196 Women anointed the Balisters..of the Churches, and the Repositories of Martyrs.
1729 T. Salmon Mod. Hist. X. xvii. 86 Rome being grown to a vast Bigness, he takes it for granted that they had Repositories for their Dead.
1774 T. Pennant Tour Scotl. 1772 180 In the middle of these repositories was placed the urn filled with the ashes of the dead.
1807 G. Chalmers Caledonia I. iii. vii. 416 Lulach was buried..in Iona, the accustomed repository of the Scottish kings.
1875 B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 305 The ordering of the repositories of the dead.
1939 Montana: State Guide Bk. (Federal Writers' Project) (1949) 263 This cemetery..has become a repository for the dead of various battles and forts of the Northwest.
1988 K. Ryan in W. van Peer Taming of Text v. 119 The final scene is played out appropriately in the Capulet crypt, the repository of the dead generations and symbol of the patriarchal family.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > for debtors
pounda1500
pledge chamber1577
hell1598
pledge-house1634
sponging-house1699
repository1785
jankers1916
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Repository, a lockup or spunging house; a gaol.
II. Figurative and extended uses.
4. A person to whom confidential information is entrusted, a confidant (now rare); (in later use also) a person in whom trust or confidence is placed, a trusty. Cf. repose v.1 5.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > care, protection, or charge > [noun] > entrusting to another's care or keeping > one to whom a thing is entrusted
repository1592
depositor1604
depositary1608
depository1656
depositee1676
reposure1682
consignatarya1685
custodee1739
a person of confidence1777
repositary1866
1592 R. Greene Philomela sig. B2v The Earle seeing his second selfe, his onely repositorie of his private passions, entertayned him very curteously.
1673 R. Allestree Ladies Calling i. i. §13 Those women who by reason and vertu have acquir'd a Solidity and Firmness of mind, are as sure repositories of a Secret, as the most masculine confident.
1697 tr. Countess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 25 She made one of her Women, in whom she most confided, the Repository of this Secret.
1746 Folly, Sin & Danger of Marrying Widows 17 She only takes Occasion to quarrel with him, sheds a few Tears, and that very Evening visits some of her Confidants, the Repositories of her Secrets.
1773 H. Chapone Lett. Improvem. Mind I. 182 Guard against being made the repository of such secrets.
1796 F. Burney Camilla V. x. xiv. 556 Edgar, by generous confidence, became the repository of her every thought.
1810 P. B. Shelley Zastrozzi vi. 72 Make me the repository of your sorrows; I would, if possible, alleviate them.
1820 J. F. Cooper Precaution I. viii. 80 Emily loved her sisters too well, to go out of her own family for a repository of her griefs or a partaker in her joys.
1850 C. Dickens David Copperfield xxiv. 251 I missed Agnes. I found a tremendous blank, in the place of that smiling repository of my confidence.
1921 B. Williams Cecil Rhodes xv. 260 Of these agents Dr. Harris took the leading part. By his own account, he was the repository of nearly all Rhodes's secrets.
1988 G. Walker John Skelton & Politics 1520s iii. 89 Wolsey was clearly the repository of Henry's trust and favour in the former year, but the object of criticism..two years later.
1995 L. E. Docherty Siren Songs (1998) ii. 82 Having proved herself the worthy repository of her husband's confidence, Penelope becomes an internal ‘audience of one’.
5.
a. A person, place, or thing regarded as a store or fund of something immaterial, as knowledge, authority, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > supply > storage > [noun] > place where anything is or may be stored > specifically of immaterial things
arkc1175
garnerc1175
cellara1387
aumbry1477
vein1533
armourya1586
arsenal1593
portmanteau?1602
repository1639
reservoir1690
toy shop1714
1639 W. Laud Relation Conf. Lawd & Fisher 39 If..new Doctrines bee added to the old; the Church, which is Sacrarium, Veritatis, the Repository of Verity, may be changed in lupanar errorum.
1645 J. Howell Epistolæ Ho-elianæ Ep. Ded. sig. A2v Letters can..be as authentic Registers, and safe repositories of Truth, as any Story whatsoever.
1694 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding (new ed.) ii. x. 70 This Laying up of our Ideas in the Repository of the Memory.
1713 A. Pope in Guardian 16 Mar. 2/1 I have found unvalued Repositories of Learning in the Lining of Bandboxes.
1788 T. Reid Aristotle's Logic ii. §2. 30 A division is a repository which the philosopher frames for holding his ware.
1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. i. 15 What are Theatres, but licensed repositories for ill-told lies.
1864 F. C. Bowen Treat. Logic i. 24 Language is the great repository of thought.
1951 M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 42/2 Today it is not the classroom nor the classics which are the repositories of models of eloquence, but the ad agencies.
1991 R. Goldstein Dark Sister ii. 8 She felt herself the repository of all the unowned anger of all the gently smiling females of all the unenlightened..times.
2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 7 May 21/1 The [lighthouse] keeper is a repository of local history, legend, biblical stories and rumour.
b. Used in the titles of periodicals and magazines. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1759 Owen's Weekly Chron. 22–9 Dec. 413/1 On Tuesday, Jan. 1, 1760, will be published..Number I. of The British Magazine; or, Monthly Repository for Gentlemen and Ladies.
1771 (title) The Repository: or Treasury of politics and literature.
1808 W. Wilson Hist. & Antiq. Dissenting Churches II. 305 Dr. Rees delivered a very suitable address, which was printed in the Monthly Repository.
1841 Ladies' Repository Jan. 7/2 The Repository will aim to entertain as well as instruct.
1898 Korean Repository Dec. 448 The Repository during the past four years placed before its readers articles of permanent value on this subject.
1954 (title) The Literary Repository. A quarterly devoted to the printing of unpublished manuscripts and original articles of archaeological, historical, literary, sociological and theological interest.
6. A place in which something (physical) accumulates, or is present in significant quantities.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > supply > storage > [noun] > place where anything is or may be stored > place where anything is accumulated
repository1671
reservoir1839
1671 S. Morland Tuba Stentoro-phonica 5 Whether that immortal Fire, in the act of Vision, makes any use of the Animal Spirits (those nimble Mercurys of which it has such plentiful Repositories in the Ventricles of the Brain)?
1673 N. Grew Idea Phytol. Hist. iii. 113 So that the Pith is as it were a Repository of better Aliment gradually supplied to those succiferous Vessels.
1707 G. Miège Present State Great Brit. II. iii. 35 Mountains are the Repositories of Minerals, in whose Cavities the Subterranean Fire matures them.
1790 E. Umfreville Present State of Hudson's Bay 53 He was engaged in..determining the truth of a copper-mine being up the country. He was two years in search of this valuable repository.
1815 R. Bakewell Introd. Geol. (ed. 2) xii. 278 Beside rake veins there are other mineral repositories, called flat veins or flat works, and pipe veins.
1855 J. R. Leifchild Cornwall: Mines & Miners 2 Cornwall is..an immense subterranean repository of copper and tin.
1902 J. E. Worcester New Primary Dict. Eng. Lang. 264/2 Saline n., repository of salt; salt pit; salt-spring.
1907 J. Tonge Coal iv. 23 The shales which are repositories of both animal and plant remains were formed in lagoons or swamps.
1997 S. S. Kang et al. in C. C. Chu et al. Wound Closure Biomaterials & Devices ix. 302 Dead space should be avoided since it is a potential repository of blood..and this could provide a favourable environment for the development of infection.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
repositoryadj.
/rᵻˈpɒsᵻt(ə)ri/, U.S. /rəˈpɑzəˌtɔri/, /riˈpɑzəˌtɔri/ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > supply > storage > [adjective] > used for storage
repository1683
1683 R. Baxter Dying Thoughts 123 If the Bee know..how to gather her Honey and Wax, and how to form the repository Combs, and how to lay it up, [etc.].
2. Military. Of, relating to, or consisting of the positioning of heavy ordnance after it has been removed from a carriage or other support. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > operation and use of weapons > action of propelling missile > discharge of firearms > management of artillery > [adjective] > placed in position for use > replacing in position
repository1830
1830 J. H. Frith (title) Repository exercises for the use of the Madras Artillery.
1873 Times 7 Aug. 8/4 During the meeting the non-commissioned officers of the School of Gunnery have been drilling the volunteers in..repository work.
1890 Daily News 21 Aug. 3/2 The Liverpool team..which took the first prize in the A shift of the repository competition.
1890 Daily News 21 Aug. 3/2 The Liverpool detachment make a point of their repository work.
1901 J. E. Cooper in G. R. Sims Living London (1902) 46/ Outside a detachment is seen, all the men with their coats off, evidently prepared for ‘Repository exercise’.
2003 C. Henry Brit. Napoleonic Artillery II. 19 The gunners all learned what were known as repository exercises. These were exercises designed to get the men to learn all of the different ways of lifting, hauling and positioning gun barrels and carriages.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1485
adj.1683