parcel

Wikipedia

English

Etymology

From Old French parcelle (“a small piece or part, a parcel, a particle”), from Medieval Latin particella, contr. parcella (“a parcel”), dim. of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of pars (“part, piece”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: pärʹ-səl, IPA: /ˈpɑrsəl/, X-SAMPA: /"pArs@l/
  • (Australia) IPA: [ˈpʰaː.səɫ]
  • (UK) IPA: [ˈpʰɑː.səɫ]
  • (US) IPA: [ˈpʰɑɹ.səɫ]

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(r)səl
• Hyphenation: par‧cel

Noun

parcel (plural parcels)

1. A package wrapped for shipment.
   • 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 2, The Lisson Grove Mystery^[1]:

     “H'm !” he said, “so, so—it is a tragedy in a prologue and three acts. I am going down this afternoon to see the curtain fall for the third time on what [...] will prove a good burlesque ; but it all began dramatically enough. It was last Saturday […] that two boys, playing in the little spinney just outside Wembley Park Station, came across three large parcels done up in American cloth. […]”

   I saw a brown paper parcel on my doorstep.

2. An individual consignment of cargo for shipment, regardless of size and form.
3. A division of land bought and sold as a unit.

   I own a small parcel of land between the refinery and the fish cannery.

4. (obsolete) A group of birds.
5. A group of people.
   • Herman Melville, Omoo

     A parcel of giddy creatures of her own age.

6. A small amount of food that has been wrapped up, for example a pastry.

Synonyms

• (package wrapped for shipment): package
• (division of land bought and sold as a unit): plot

Derived terms

• parcel bomb
• parcel out
• parcel post
• parcel together
• parcel up
• parcellate
• parcellation
• part and parcel
• pass the parcel

Related terms

• part
• particle
• particular
• particulate

Translations

package wrapped for shipment

• Albanian: pako
• Arabic: رزمة (ar) (rízma, rúzma) f, طرد (ar) (Tard) m
• Basque: pakete (eu)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 包裹 (cmn), 包裹 (cmn) (bāoguǒ), 郵包 (cmn), 邮包 (cmn) (yóubāo)

• Czech: balík (cs) m
• Finnish: paketti (fi)
• French: colis (fr) m, paquet (fr) m
• German: Paket (de) n
• Hindi: पार्सल (hi) (pārsal) m
• Hungarian: csomag (hu)

• Indonesian: parsel (id)
• Italian: pacchetto (it) m
• Japanese: 包み (ja) (つつみ, tsutsumi)
• Khmer: កញ្ចប់ (km) (kanh jorb)
• Korean: 소포 (ko) (sopo)
• Persian: بسته (fa) (baste)
• Polish: paczka (pl) f
• Portuguese: pacote (pt) m
• Russian: посылка (ru) (posýlka) f
• Spanish: paquete (es) m
• Urdu: پارسل (ur) (pārsal) m

division of land bought and sold as a unit

• Czech: parcela (cs) f
• Finnish: tontti (fi)
• French: parcelle (fr) f
• German: Parzelle (de)
• Hungarian: parcella (hu)

• Indonesian: petak (id)
• Italian: lotto (it)
• Japanese: 地割 (ja) (ちわり, chiwari)
• Korean: 구획 (ko) (guhoek)
• Russian: участок (ru) (učástok) m

See also

• lot
• allotment

Verb

parcel (third-person singular simple present parcels, present participle parceling or parcelling, simple past and past participle parceled or parcelled)

1. To wrap something up into the form of a package.
2. To wrap a strip around the end of a rope.

   Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.

Translations

to wrap into a package

• Finnish: paketoida (fi)

• Italian: impacchettare (it)

to wrap a strip around the end of a rope

Adverb

parcel (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Part or half; in part; partially.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     The worthy dame was parcel-blind.

   • Tennyson

     One that […] was parcel-bearded.

External links

• parcel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• parcel in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

• carpel
• placer