Parca

See also: parca and parça

Italian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpar.ka/
• Rhymes: -arka
• Hyphenation: Pàr‧ca

Proper noun

Parca m or f by sense

1. a surname

Further reading

• Stefano Ravara, Mappa dei Cognomi, 2015–2026

Latin

Etymology

Suggestions include:

• parcō (“I spare”)
• pariō (“I give birth”)
• plicō, plectō (“I plait”)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈpar.ka]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈpar.ka]

Proper noun

Parca f (genitive Parcae); first declension

1. any one of the Fates (the three goddesses who control destiny)
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.21–22:

     hinc populum, lātē rēgem bellōque superbum,
     ventūrum excidiō Libyae: sīc volvere Parcās.

     Because these people, wide-ruling and proud in war,
     would come to destroy Libya: The Fates [were] thus to spin.
     (Rome would defeat Carthage in Libya; the Fates spun, measured and cut the metaphorical threads of life. See: Parcae. Notes: regem is an abbreviation of present active participle regentem or regnantem, “ruling”; bello is an ablative of respect, “in respect to war”; excidio is a dative of purpose, “for the destruction.” The grammar and idiom of sic volvere Parcas is variously interpreted, e.g.: “thus the Fates were spinning,” “the Fates had so decreed.”)

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	Parca	Parcae
genitive	Parcae	Parcārum
dative	Parcae	Parcīs
accusative	Parcam	Parcās
ablative	Parcā	Parcīs
vocative	Parca	Parcae

Descendants

• French: Parque
• Italian: Parca

References

• “Parca”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Parca”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “Parca”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaɾka/ [ˈpaɾ.ka]
• Rhymes: -aɾka
• Syllabification: Par‧ca

Proper noun

Parca f

1. Grim Reaper

Related terms

• Parcas