Sense file
How the sense moved
The archive follows the dated record first, then reads the social or rhetorical pressure that hardened, softened, narrowed, or reversed the word.
Older meaning
Learning by inquiry, an account of investigation, or knowledge gained by asking.
Modern meaning
A record or account of past events; also a field of inquiry into the past.
Research lens
A model archive myth case: the false explanation succeeds because it feels politically sharp and rhetorically efficient.
Meaning trail
Root
inquiry or knowing
The original force is investigation, not ownership.
Older sense
account of inquiry
Narrative grows out of asking and finding out.
Now
record of the past
The inquiry root survives under the modern historical field.