parch

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English parchen,^[2][3][4] also perchen,^[5][6][7] of unknown origin.^{[8][9][6][10]} The Middle English Dictionary and Barnhart suggest, with doubt, that perchen is a variant of perishen, the source of perish,^[2][11] as Weekley held;^[12] the OED mentions the idea without adopting it.^[8] A derivation from a northern French variant of Old French percer (“to pierce”) is given as possible by Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[7] but the OED rejects it on the ground of meaning.^[8] Another proposal, Late Latin persiccō (“to dry thoroughly”), meets the difficulty that no Middle French intermediary is on record.^[8][3] Klein tentatively suggested a back-formation from parchment,^[3] and Skeat a shortened French form of the same word.^[13] Johnson reported guesses by Junius and Skinner, which he thought unsatisfying to their authors, and himself suggested perustus (“burnt”) or parchment.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To dry something by intense heat, or to roast it lightly: before 1382, of ears of grain in the Wycliffite Bible's Leviticus.^[8][2] Barnhart has "burn, lay waste" before 1338, in Mannyng's chronicle,^[11] and the surname Parchehare of 1246–47 implies that the verb was in use still earlier.^[8][11]

Semantic evolution

The first uses were practical, the roasting or drying of peas, beans, oats and corn, and Middle English also had parched peas and beans, dried and ground up;^[2][15] a surname Parchecorn is recorded from the mid-14th century.^[15] From the mid-15th century the action moved to the sun, fever and thirst, which dry something to extremity,^[8][15] and this is the sense the American Heritage Dictionary and Collins now put first.^[4][16] The verb was intransitive by 1530, in Palsgrave,^[8] and by 1574 the shrivelling could even be done by cold, chiefly in poetry.^[8][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as to burn slightly, to scorch, to dry up,^[14] and Webster (1828) still gave corn as an example.^[17] The sense of being very thirsty now mostly takes the passive.^[16][9] The noun has remained rare; the first record, to make parch of, to lay waste, is from before 1450, and the sense of the action of parching dates from 1870.^[8] It survives chiefly in compounds such as parch mark, in archaeology a discoloured patch of ground over buried remains in dry weather.^[9]

Timeline

• 1246–47 – implied by the surname Parchehare.^[8][11]
• before 1338 – to burn, lay waste, in Mannyng.^[11]
• before 1382 – to dry by heat, to roast lightly.^[8][2]
• before 1450 – to dry to extremity, of the sun or fever.^[8] Also the noun, in to make parch of, to lay waste (obsolete).^[8]
• 1530 – intransitive, to become very dry, in Palsgrave.^[8]
• 1574 – to shrivel with cold, in Baret.^[8]
• 1870 – noun, the action of parching.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make extremely dry, especially by exposure to heat; to scorch or shrivel: A month without rain had parched the pasture.^{[4][16][7][8]}
2. To make very thirsty, usually in the passive: By noon the hikers were parched.^[16][9]
3. To roast or toast lightly under dry heat, as corn or peas: They parched the peas over the fire.^{[4][16][7][8]}
4. (chiefly poetic) To dry or wither with cold.^[8][9][7]
5. To become very dry or scorched: The lawn parches quickly in August.^[4][7][8]

Noun

1. (rare) The action of parching or the state of being parched; a drying out.^[9][7][8]

Word family

• parchable
• parchedness
• parchingly

Usage notes

The OED also records from 1938 a noun parch, a member of the clergy, pronounced with /k/ or /x/, from Welsh Parch (“Reverend”), an abbreviation of parchedig (“worthy of respect”).^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Webster, Noah (1828), An American Dictionary of the English Language, New York: S. Converse