parcel

Pronunciation

• US: /ˈpɑɹsəl/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English parcelle, later parcel,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman parcele and Old French parcelle (“small piece, part”) (now French parcelle),^[3][2][4][5] from Medieval Latin particella (“part, portion”), recorded in the 8th century,^[3] which other dictionaries give as the reconstructed Vulgar Latin *particella,^{[6][2][7][8][9]} a form of Latin particula (“small part”), the source of particle, itself a diminutive of pars (“part”), the source of part.^[7][6][8][3] Etymonline adds that it came partly directly from parcella,^[4] which was frequent in British sources from about 1212 for a parcel of land.^[3] In Anglo-Norman, from the late 13th century, it already meant a part or portion, a package or consignment, an item of an account and a piece of land.^[10][3] The verb is formed from the noun;^[3][4][11] the OED compares Anglo-Norman parceller (“to divide into portions”).^[3] The dialect form passel is a variant of it.^[12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A part, portion or division: about 1303, in Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, according to Barnhart.^[2] The OED's first record is from before 1325, for an item of an account, a detail.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In early use the word shared with part the idea of a section of a larger whole.^[14][7] That sense survives in part and parcel, where the OED's use for an integral part goes back to Chaucer (about 1395), and in a parcel of land, recorded from 1404.^{[3][4][14][5]} From about 1436 it also meant a small group or collection of people, animals or things,^[3][5] and it was used disparagingly, as in a parcel of fools, from 1607;^[3][15] in dialect the variant passel came to mean a large number.^[13][12] The modern sense of a package came through the notions of a number of parts forming a whole and a collection of items.^[7] Barnhart dates it to 1465, after the sense of a bundle (about 1436);^[2] the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins places it in the mid 16th century, when the word referred mainly to the contents, goods or a quantity of a substance wrapped together,^[14] and Ayto, Hoad and Weekley in the 17th century.^[7][5][16] Johnson (1755) gave "a small bundle" as its first sense.^[17] The parcel post, set up in 1883, was at first called the parcels post.^[16] The verb meant to divide into portions, usually with out, from 1416,^[3] to bind a rope or seam with strips of tarred canvas at sea from 1625,^[3] and to make up into a parcel from 1775.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1303 – a part, portion, division.^[2]
• before 1325 – an item of an account, a detail (obsolete by 1669).^[3]
• c. 1395 – an integral part, as in part and parcel.^[3]
• 1404 – a piece of land.^[3]
• 1416 – verb, to divide into portions.^[3]
• c. 1436 – a group or collection; a bundle.^[3][2]
• 1465 – a package, according to Barnhart.^[2]
• 1607 – disparaging, a pack or bunch.^[3]
• 1625 – verb, nautical, to wrap with tarred canvas.^[3]
• 1775 – verb, to make into a parcel.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thing that is wrapped up for sending or carrying; a package: The courier left a parcel at the door.^[18][9]
2. A distinct piece of land: a parcel of farmland.^[18][3][9]
3. A group of people or things, often said with contempt: a parcel of rogues.^[18][3][15]
4. A quantity of a commodity offered for sale; a lot.^[18][9]
5. A part of a whole, now chiefly in part and parcel, an essential part.^[18][9][3]
6. In meteorology, a volume of air or other fluid treated as a unit within a larger mass.^[9]

Verb

1. To divide into portions and share out, usually with out: The estate was parcelled out among the heirs.^[18][9][3]
2. To make into a parcel; to wrap up, usually with up.^[18][9][3]
3. In nautical use, to wrap a rope or seam with strips of tarred canvas.^[18][3]

Adverb

1. (archaic) Partly, in part, as in parcel-gilt.^[9][18][16]

Word family

• unparcelled
• parcel post
• part and parcel

Related words

• part
• particle
• particular
• particulate
• passel
• portion

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 j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins