Etymologically
Log in

parkland

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word parkland

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1649 Kingdomes Weekly Intelligencer
Ultimate origins
Old French parcProto-Germanic *land
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English park
English parkland
From the same root
English ballpark ← park

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈpɑːklænd/[1]
  • US: /ˈpɑːrklænd/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from English park + land.[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Open grassland with scattered clumps of trees: 1649, in the Kingdomes Weekly Intelligencer, according to the OED's 2005 revision.[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1727,[5] Dictionary.com to 1905–10[4] and Etymonline to 1907.[3]

Semantic evolution

From the first sense, grassland with scattered trees, the word came to mean land laid out as a park, from 1868 in Trollope's Phineas Finn;[2] Etymonline dates "land used for a park" to 1937.[3] In Canada it is land that the law sets aside for public recreation and wildlife (from 1957),[2][6] and the lightly wooded grassland between the prairies and the northern forests of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.[6] In South Australia a parkland is a public park or garden.[7]

Timeline

  • 1649 – open grassland with clumps of trees.[2]
  • 1868 – land laid out as a park.[2]
  • 1957 – in Canada, land set aside for public recreation and wildlife.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Open grassland with scattered trees or groups of trees.[8][9][2]
  2. Land used or suitable for a public park: The city bought the old rail yard as parkland.[10][5][2]
  3. (Canada) The lightly wooded grassland between the prairies and the northern forests.[6]
  4. (South Australia) A public park or garden.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c Barber, Katherine, ed. (2004), The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Toronto: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers
  8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Cite this entry

“Parkland.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/parkland. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·