parochial

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word parochial. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word parochial, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say parochial in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word parochial you have here. The definition of the word parochial will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofparochial, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

WOTD – 9 August 2007

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman parochial and its source Late Latin parochialis, an alteration of paroecialis (“of a church province”), from paroecia, from Hellenistic Greek παροικία (paroikía, “stay in a foreign land”), later “community, diocese”, from Ancient Greek πάροικος (pároikos, “neighbouring, neighbour”), from παρα- (para-) + οἶκος (oîkos, “house”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

parochial (comparative more parochial, superlative most parochial)

  1. Pertaining to a parish.
  2. Characterized by an unsophisticated focus on local concerns to the exclusion of wider contexts; elementary in scope or outlook.
    The use of simple, primary colors in the painting gave it a parochial feel.
    Some people in the United States have been accused of taking a parochial view, of not being interested in international matters.
    • 1918 1st of February, Daniel Desmond Sheehan, “Why I Joined The Army”, in Daily Express, London:
      But for men of principle and honour and straightforward thought there could be no middle course and no paltering with petty issues of party or parochial advantage.
    • 1969, T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830, page 341:
      Its atmosphere might have been provincial, but it was never merely parochial.
    • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques Cheltenham (1928)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:
      The society had apparently been formed the previous year, but as the Cheltenham Spa Railway Society, which sounded rather parochial and unambitious - particularly as (by all accounts) its founders had gathered in a garden shed in the town.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

parochial (plural parochials)

  1. A parochial individual.
    • 2006, Ian Marsh, Democratisation, Governance and Regionalism in East and Southeast Asia:
      If the vast majority of the citizens of our Southeast Asian countries are subjects rather than parochials, the question is: are they also participants?
    • 2022, Sumeyya Ilanbey, Daniel Andrews:
      Australia is divided between cosmopolitans and parochials.

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin parochialis. Compare the inherited term paroissial.

Adjective

parochial m (oblique and nominative feminine singular parochiale)

  1. parochial

Descendants

  • ⇒ English: parochial
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia