Ask any person you meet on the street the question "What is a dossier?". "This is such a folder in which all the information collected about a person is stored, or simply the person’s documents are stored," the majority will say. But is this the right answer? What is a dossier and what is the origin of the word?
Meaning of the word
“Dossier” is a word of French origin (dossier - “business”). It is a neuter noun, inanimate, indeclinable. Refers to special vocabulary. In Russian, it has two meanings:
- a set of documents and materials related to any business or person;
- folder with all the collected materials.
The most commonly used expressions with this word, as well as examples of its use, are as follows:
- he collected a complete dossier for each member of this group that came from abroad, and his information was quite complete;
- start a dossier on someone;
- dossier is a very useful tool for collecting, storing and organizing any information.
Varieties
As already mentioned, a dossier is a folder containing documents and information collected about a case or a person. However, it can be of several types, for example such:
- On any person. It contains all the information about him, his biography, habits, social circle, professional activities and professional relations, as well as many other facts.
- To a competitor. It is often conducted at enterprises and contains data on the competitor’s company, its plans, capabilities, completed transactions, etc.
- A credit dossier is all the information collected about a person in terms of his relationship with the bank, information about his loans, debts on him and other details important for the bank and its employees.
These are just a few of the most common species. In general, there are many more. Some of them are found in several areas at once, while some are specific.