parish

English Online Dictionary. What means parish‎? What does parish mean?

English

Alternative forms

• paroch (Scotland, obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹɪʃ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpæɹɪʃ/, /ˈpɛɹɪʃ/
• Homophone: perish (Mary–marry–merry merger)
• Hyphenation: par‧ish
• Rhymes: (General American) -ɛɹɪʃ

Etymology 1

From Middle English parisshe, from Old French paroisse (compare the obsolete variant paroch, from Anglo-Norman paroche, parosse), from Late Latin parochia, from Ancient Greek παροικία (paroikía, “a dwelling abroad”).

Noun

parish (plural parishes)

1. (Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism) An administrative part of a diocese that has its own church.

   Hyponym: (Philippines) gimong

2. The community attending that church; the members of the parish.

   Synonym: parishioner

3. (US) An ecclesiastical society, usually not bounded by territorial limits, but composed of those persons who choose to unite under the charge of a particular priest, clergyman, or minister; also, loosely, the territory in which the members of a congregation live.
4. A civil subdivision of a British county, often corresponding to an earlier ecclesiastical parish.
5. In some countries, an administrative subdivision of an area.
   1. An administrative subdivision in the U.S. state of Louisiana that is equivalent to a county in other U.S. states.

Derived terms

Related terms

• parochial

Translations

Verb

parish (third-person singular simple present parishes, present participle parishing, simple past and past participle parished)

1. (transitive) To place (an area, or rarely a person) into one or more parishes.
   • 1917, Annual Report of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, page 70:

     […] [m]akes possible, through the aid of the rural ministers, the development of the various phases of the District program, such as (a) Parishing of the District; (b) Interdenominational adjustment in the interest of rural religious advance […]
2. (intransitive) To visit residents of a parish.

Etymology 2

Verb

parish (third-person singular simple present parishes, present participle parishing, simple past and past participle parished)

1. Pronunciation spelling of perish, representing Mary–marry–merry merger English.

Anagrams

• Phairs, Shairp, raphis

Middle English

Noun

parish

1. Alternative form of parisshe