parapet

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French parapet, first found in French as parapete in Rabelais in 1546,^[2] and directly borrowed from Italian parapetto, its source.^[2][3][4][5] Barnhart takes it through French alone,^[6] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Collins give only the Italian word.^[7][8] The compound is formed from para- (“defence, protection”), the stem of parare (“to shield, ward off”),^[7][9][6] and petto (“breast, chest”),^[9][7] so that it means a chest-high wall,^[8][4] or, as Skeat read it, a guard for the breast.^[10] That verb goes back to Latin parō (“to prepare”),^[7] and that noun to pectus (“breast”),^[9][11] the source of pectoral.^[6] The OED compares a post-classical Medieval Latin parapectum of the late 13th century, from an Italian source.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A defence of earth or stone that hides soldiers from enemy fire: 1575, in Gascoigne's Noble Arte of Venerie.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the 1580s,^[3] and Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1590, Barnhart naming Marlowe's Tamburlaine.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The word was first a military term, for a screen that protected troops from the enemy.^[12][2] The low wall at the edge of a roof, balcony or bridge, meant to stop people falling, is recorded in English from 1598, in Florio's dictionary.^[2][6] That order reverses the Italian record, where the wall is found before 1348 and the fortification only in 1567.^[2] Johnson (1755) defines the word simply as a breast-high wall, and quotes Ben Jonson's image of a "wall or parapet of teeth" in the mouth;^[13] the OED records a sense for anything resembling a parapet from before 1637, also from Jonson.^[2] From the late 18th century the word was used locally for a pavement or footpath beside a road, first in a 1795 history of Liverpool;^[2][14] the English Dialect Dictionary records this use in Lancashire, Cheshire, the Isle of Man and Staffordshire.^[15] In Guyana it can mean a grass bank beside a road.^[2]

Timeline

• 1575 – a bank or wall that protects troops.^[2] Etymonline dates this to the 1580s, Barnhart to 1590.^[3][6]
• 1598 – a low wall at the edge of a roof, balcony or bridge, in Florio.^[2][6]
• 1633 – verb, to provide or defend with a parapet.^[2]
• before 1637 – something resembling a parapet, in Ben Jonson's Timber.^[2]
• 1795 – in Lancashire, a footpath beside a road.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A low wall or railing along the edge of a roof, balcony, bridge or similar place: She leaned over the parapet to watch the barges pass.^[8][7][2]
2. A bank of earth, a mound of sandbags or a similar defence in front of a trench, protecting soldiers from fire; a breastwork.^[8][7][2]
3. In a permanent fortification, a rampart raised on or above the main wall.^[7][2]
4. (regional, chiefly Lancashire) A pavement or footpath beside a road.^[2][14][15]

Verb

1. To provide or defend with a parapet; used chiefly in the passive.^[2][14]

Word family

• parapeted
• parapetless

Related words

• parasol
• parados
• pectoral
• pare

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)