Etymologically
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parade

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /pəˈɹeɪd/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French parade (“display, show, military parade”),[2][3][4] from Spanish parada (“a stopping”) and Italian parata,[5][6][2] from Latin parāre (“to prepare, furnish”), which in Medieval Latin also meant to halt, guard against and adorn.[3][2][5] In French the meaning was influenced by parer, to arrange or adorn.[2] The verb is a doublet of parry.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Show, display; the assembling of troops for inspection: 1656, in Blount's Glossographia.[2][7] Etymonline dates it to the 1650s.[3]

Semantic evolution

In French horsemanship it was the act of stopping a horse.[2][3] A march or procession, especially a grand public one, is from 1673–74,[7][2] and a public square or promenade, and a crowd of promenaders, from 1722.[7][5] The Easter parade is from 1904.[7] The verb, to array troops, is from the 1680s; to march up and down from 1748; and to show off ostentatiously by 1818.[3] Parade-ground is by 1724.[3] A row of shops is a British sense.[8]

Timeline

  • 1656 – display; a muster of troops.[2][7]
  • 1673 – a procession.[7]
  • 1680s – the verb.[3]
  • 1722 – a promenade.[7]
  • 1818 – to show off.[3]
  • 1904 – Easter parade.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A public procession, especially one celebrating a special day or event.
  2. A formal assembly of troops for inspection or display.
  3. A series or succession: a parade of visitors.
  4. An ostentatious display.
  5. (British) A row of shops; a public promenade.

Verb

  1. To march in a procession.
  2. To show off; to display ostentatiously.

Word family

  • parader
  • paradeful
  • paradeless
  • paradelike
  • paradingly
  • unparaded
  • hit parade
  • parade rest

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins