parchment

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English parchemin, also perchemin and parchement,^[2] borrowed from Old French parchemin,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} also Anglo-Norman parchemin, recorded from 1120–40 for animal skin prepared for writing and for a document.^[8] Old French had it from the 11th century, first as parcamin.^[3][4] The French word goes back to an altered form of Late Latin pergamēna (also pergamina), short for pergamēna charta,^[3][4][9] the feminine of Pergamēnus (“of Pergamum”),^[3][10] from Ancient Greek Περγαμηνή (Pergamēnḗ, “(skin) of Pergamon”),^[6][3] from Πέργαμον (Pérgamon), the city in Mysia in Asia Minor where parchment was said to have been first prepared.^[6][3][4] The French change of the consonant g to c, later ch, probably comes from Latin Parthica pellis (“Parthian leather”), a kind of scarlet leather;^[3][11][12] Hoad, Ayto and the Oxford Dictionary of English describe the French word as the result of a blend of the two,^[5][9][11] while Barnhart and Etymonline only allow that the Parthian leather may have influenced it.^[13][4] The English ending -ment appears in the 15th century,^[5][9] by influence of Medieval Latin pergamentum and of the suffix -ment;^[3][13][14] the same Latin form gave perkament and Pergament.^[3] Italian pergamena and Spanish pergamino keep the g.^[3][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Animal skin dressed and prepared for writing, painting or bookbinding: about 1330, in the Auchinleck manuscript of Bevis of Hampton.^[3] Barnhart dates parchemyne to about 1250,^[13] and Etymonline to about 1300.^[4] The surname Walterus Perchamunt (1200) suggests the word was current earlier.^[3][13][4]

Semantic evolution

From the material the word passed by about 1350 to a piece or roll of it, and to a document written on one.^[3] Johnson (1755) noted that among traders the skins of sheep were called parchment and those of calves vellum,^[16] though Ayto observes that the distinction has never been strict in English.^[9] Because cheap paper eventually limited parchment to formal documents, the word came to mean a certificate,^[4] in slang a diploma or a certificate of service, from 1851;^[3] in British underworld slang of the 19th century a parchment was a ticket-of-leave.^[17] From 1682 to the late 19th century it was used of skins or husks resembling parchment, especially the husk of the coffee bean,^[3] and since 1904 of a light beige colour.^[3] The name was also given to papers made to look like parchment.^[14][7]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – animal skin prepared for writing.^[3]
• before 1350 – a piece or roll of parchment; a document written on it.^[3]
• 1438 – the form parchement, with -t.^[13]
• 1682 – a skin or husk like parchment, especially of the coffee bean (obsolete by 1893).^[3]
• 1851 – slang, a certificate such as a diploma.^[3]
• 1904 – a cream or light beige colour.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The skin of a sheep, goat or other animal, treated to make a lasting material for writing on or for bookbinding.^[7][14][3]
2. A manuscript or document written on this material.^[7][3]
3. A stiff, off-white paper made to resemble it.^[7][14]
4. A light beige colour.^[3]
5. (slang) A certificate, such as a diploma.^[3][4]

Word family

• parchmentlike
• parchmentize
• parchment worm
• parchment paper

Related words

• Pergamene

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
14. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com