α. 1600s– record office.
β. 1800s– records office.
Also with capital initial(s).record officen.
/ˈrɛkɔːd ˌɒfɪs/, U.S. /ˈrɛkərd ˌɔfəs/ An office or building in which official records are kept; the archive of the official records of a government or other institution; spec. (with the and capital initials) the Public Record Office in London.In quot. 1647 at α. : the State Paper Office.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > record > written record > arrangement and storage of written records > [noun] > place where official records are kept
registery1483
chancery1523
registry1531
cartuary1539
Register House1540
cartulary?1541
arches1626
register office1641
archive1645
record office1647
tabulary1656
registry office1720
registrature1762
dufter1791
records department1825
PRO1892
morgue1914
α.
β. 1807 Parl. Reg.: 1st Session 3rd Parl. I. 6 Those stores of ancient wisdom, which had hitherto been confined to the Records office.1890 Times 14 Aug. 7/4 The Records Office happily is a department which is not easily rebuffed.1934 Discovery Nov. 319/2 The buildings under observation were the Great Temple, the Records Office and the Police Barracks.1958 People 4 May 6/4 He was a trustie working in our records office.1647 J. Lilburne Oppressed Mans Oppress. 11 I was but going with a fellow-prisoner in the path that leads to the Record-office.
1650 B. Gerbier To Parl. 15 By the practical establishment of that general Record-office, those States did in the space of one six weeks get a vast stock of ready money into their Coffers.
1724 W. Stukeley Itinerarium Curiosum iv. 70 His lordship show'd us in his study four or five vast books in MS. being transcripts out of the record offices, relating to his manors, royaltys, estates and muniments.
?1768 G. Beaumont & H. Disney New Tour thro' Eng. 23/1 Which Model is kept in the Record-office in the Tower of London.
1800 First Rep. Public Rec. 18 Upon Inquiry into the Record Offices of the Sheriffs [etc.].
1855 R. C. Singleton tr. Virgil Georgics ii, in tr. Virgil Wks. I. 141 Nor people's record-offices beheld.
1878 N. Amer. Rev. May 540 The greater and increasing treasures of the Record-Office for these and earlier periods lately calendared and indexed.
1904 G. B. Shaw Let. 23 Nov. (1972) II. 467 I was startled to hear that Edith Livia was getting..twenty-five shillings a week for work at the Record Office.
1951 Incorporated Statistician 2 4 Applicable to all patients and largely the responsibility of the clerical staff of the Hospital Record Office.
1991 Parl. Hist. 10 230 Much more manuscript material..remains hidden away in county record offices and private muniment rooms.
1997 Times 5 Mar. 47/5 Edwardian? Didn't that make it less than a hundred years old? It did. Easy-peasy—a couple of trips down to the record office and it was all over.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1647