Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Parliament
/ˈpɑːrləmənt/noun
A national assembly with the power to make laws.
The Greek roots
παρά
pará
beside
βάλλω
bállō
to throw
Literally: “a throwing beside”
The story of the word
The chain is long and every link is real. Greek παραβολή, a comparison, entered Late Latin as parabola, a figure of speech; the verb parabolare, to talk in comparisons, then pushed aside classical loqui and became the ordinary Vulgar Latin word for talking, which is why the French say parler. A parlement was a session of talking, and the English borrowed it in the thirteenth century for the king's talking-shop. Parliament, parable and palaver all come out of one Greek noun.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 13th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
parableparoleparleypalaverparabola
In a sentence
Parliament sat through the night before the vote was finally called.