Words & WritingGreek → English
Parenthesis
/pəˈrɛnθəsɪs/noun
A word or passage inserted into a sentence as an aside, or either of the curved marks enclosing it.
The Greek roots
παρά
pará
beside
ἐν
en
in
θέσις
thésis
a placing
Literally: “a placing in beside”
The story of the word
Three pieces stacked up: beside, in, and a placing, from títhēmi, to put. The Greeks meant the inserted words themselves and had no marks for them; English kept that sense for about a century before the brackets stole the name. Strictly the parenthesis is the aside and the curved marks are only its walls, which is why editors who care distinguish parenthesis from parentheses.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1540s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
thesissynthesisantithesisepenthesis
In a sentence
He can hold a parenthesis open for three minutes and still find his way back.
Put the citation in parentheses at the end of the clause.