parcel
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English parcel, from Old French parcelle (“a small piece or part, a parcel, a particle”), from Late Latin particella, diminutive of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of partem (“part, piece”). Doublet of particle.
Pronunciation[edit]
- enPR: pärʹ-səl, IPA(key): /ˈpɑɹsəl/
- (General Australian) IPA(key): [ˈpʰaː.səɫ]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): [ˈpʰɑː.səɫ]
- (General American) IPA(key): [ˈpʰɑɹ.səɫ]
Audio (GA) (file)
- Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)səl
- Hyphenation: par‧cel
Noun[edit]
parcel (plural parcels)
- A package wrapped for shipment.
- Synonym: package
- I saw a brown paper parcel on my doorstep.
- 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
- At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly […] on the floor.
- 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Lisson Grove Mystery”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
- “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. […] ”
- An individual consignment of cargo for shipment, regardless of size and form.
- An individual item appearing on an invoice or receipt (only in the phrase bill of parcels).
- A division of land bought and sold as a unit.
- Synonym: plot
- I own a small parcel of land between the refinery and the fish cannery.
- (obsolete) A group of birds.
- An indiscriminate or indefinite number, measure, or quantity; a collection; a group.
- c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
- […] this youthful parcel / Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,
- 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 79:
- […] instead of sitting (as she ought to have done) by her good father and mother, she must needs run up into the gallery, and sit with a parcel of giddy creatures of her own age […]
- A small amount of food that has been wrapped up, for example a pastry.
- A portion of anything taken separately; a fragment of a whole; a part.
- A certain piece of land is part and parcel of another piece.
- 1731, John Arbuthnot, chapter 4, in An essay concerning the nature of aliments[1], London: J. Tonson, page 85:
- The same Experiments succeed on two Parcels of the White of an Egg […]
- 1881, John Addington Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy, Volume 5, Part I, New York: Henry Holt, Chapter 1, p. 2,[2]
- The parcels of the nation adopted different forms of self-government, sought divers foreign alliances.
- 1982 April 3, “Mousie Mousie Wildflower”, in Gay Community News, page 15:
- I don't think we are sitting pretty / So far away from our fair city / But I love you more than any parcel of earth.
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
package wrapped for shipment
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division of land bought and sold as a unit
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See also[edit]
Verb[edit]
parcel (third-person singular simple present parcels, present participle parceling or parcelling, simple past and past participle parceled or parcelled)
- To wrap something up into the form of a package.
- To wrap a strip around the end of a rope.
- To divide and distribute by parts or portions; often with off, out or into.
- c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
- Their woes are parcell’d, mine are general.
- 1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 12:
- Thoſe ghoſtly Kings would parcel out my pow’r, / And all the fatneſs of my Land devour;
- 1864, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, etc.[3], London: Edward Moxon, pages 94–95:
- Then the great Hall was wholly broken down, / And the broad woodland parcell’d into farms;
- To add a parcel or item to; to itemize.
- c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
- […] that mine own servant should / Parcel the sum of my disgraces by / Addition of his envy!
Translations[edit]
to wrap into a package
to wrap a strip around the end of a rope
Adverb[edit]
parcel (not comparable)
- (obsolete) Part or half; in part; partially.
- c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet […]
- 1826, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, page 120:
- […] as the worthy dame was parcel blind and more than parcel deaf, knowledge was excluded by two principal entrances […]
- 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 59:
- here was one [a hut] that, summer-blanch’d, / Was parcel-bearded with the traveller’s-joy / In Autumn, parcel ivy-clad;
Further reading[edit]
- “parcel”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “parcel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams[edit]
Danish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French parcelle (“parcel”), from Late Latin particella, diminutive of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of partem (“part”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
parcel c (singular definite parcellen, plural indefinite parceller)
- parcel, lot (subdivided piece of land registred independently in official records)
- (informal) detached house
- Synonym: parcelhus
Declension[edit]
Declension of parcel
| common gender |
Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | parcel | parcellen | parceller | parcellerne |
| genitive | parcels | parcellens | parcellers | parcellernes |
Portuguese[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- Hyphenation: par‧cel
Noun[edit]
parcel m (plural parcéis)
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *per- (sell)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English doublets
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɑː(ɹ)səl
- Rhymes:English/ɑː(ɹ)səl/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English verbs
- English adverbs
- English uncomparable adverbs
- Danish terms borrowed from French
- Danish terms derived from French
- Danish terms derived from Late Latin
- Danish terms derived from Latin
- Danish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Danish lemmas
- Danish nouns
- Danish terms spelled with C
- Danish common-gender nouns
- Danish informal terms
- Portuguese 2-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Portuguese 3-syllable words
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese masculine nouns