parcel

pronunciation

How to pronounce parcel in British English: UK [ˈpɑːsl] word uk audio image

How to pronounce parcel in American English: US [ˈpɑːrsl] word us audio image

Noun:

a wrapped container
the result of parcelling out or sharing
an extended area of land
a collection of things wrapped or boxed together
Verb:

divide into parts
cover with strips of canvas
make into a wrapped container

Word Origin

parcel: parcel: [14] Etymologically, parcel is the same word as particle. Both go back to Latin particula, a diminutive form of pars (source of English part). Particle [14] was acquired direct from Latin, whereas parcel was routed via an unrecorded Vulgar Latin variant *particella and Old French parcelle. It originally meant ‘part’ in English (a sense which survives in fossilized form in the phrase part and parcel); the modern meaning ‘package’ emerged in the 17th century via the notions of a ‘number of parts forming a whole’ and a ‘collection of items’.=> part, particle

parcel (n.): late 14c., "a portion of something, a part" (sense preserved in phrase parcel of land, c. 1400), from Old French parcele "small piece, particle, parcel," from Vulgar Latin *particella, extended form (via diminutive suffix, but not necessarily implying smallness) of Latin particula "small part, little bit," itself a diminutive of pars (genitive partis) "part" (see part (n.)). Meaning "package" is first recorded 1640s, earlier "a quantity of goods in a package" (mid-15c.), from late 14c. sense of "an amount or quantity of anything." The expression part and parcel (early 15c.) also preserves the older sense; both words mean the same, the multiplicity is for emphasis.

parcel (v.): "to divide into small portions," early 15c. (with out), from parcel (n.). Related: Parceled; parcelled; parceling; parcelling.

4. Harry had torn open the parcel to find a thick , hand-knitted sweater in emerald green and a large box of homemade fudge .

5. I just paid 20 rmb for an overnight parcel from beijing to shanghai via shunfeng express .