ARCHIVE

An archive can mean many things.

As a noun it refers to something that has been copied (archived). The use of the archive can be for permanent storage, backup.

An archive may be also be a compressed version of an original.  Compressed files will usually fit in a smaller space.  Consequently, more information can be included in the archive file.

As a verb it refers to the function of creating a copy or an archive.

As an adjective it refers to a piece of information referred to as the archive attribute of a computer file.  Computer backup systems look at the archive attribute to see if the file has changed since the last time a particular file was backed up.