Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The skin of a sheep or goat prepared as a material on which to write or paint.
  • noun A written text or drawing on a sheet of this material.
  • noun Paper made in imitation of this material.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cause to become hard, tough, and wrinkled, as the skin in certain diseases.
  • noun The skin of sheep or goats prepared for use as a writing-material and for other purposes.
  • noun The cartilaginous sheath or hull of the coffee-bean.
  • noun A document written on parchment.
  • To convert into parchment; parchemin.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The skin of a lamb, sheep, goat, young calf, or other animal, prepared for writing on. See vellum.
  • noun The envelope of the coffee grains, inside the pulp.
  • noun See Papyrine.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A material, made from the polished skin of a calf, sheep, goat or other animal, used like paper for writing.
  • noun A document made on such material.
  • noun A diploma (traditionally written on parchment).
  • noun Stiff paper imitating that material.
  • noun The creamy to tanned color of parchment

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun skin of a sheep or goat prepared for writing on
  • noun a superior paper resembling sheepskin

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English parchemin, parchement (influenced by Medieval Latin pergamentum), from Old French parchemin, from Late Latin pergamīna, variant of Latin pergamēna, from feminine of Pergamēnus, of Pergamum, from Greek Pergamēnos, after Pergamon, (Pergamum).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English parchement, from Old French parchemin, via Latin pergamīna, from Ancient Greek Περγαμηνός (Pergamēnos, "of Pergamun"), which is named for the Ancient city of Pergamon (modern Bergama) in Asia Minor, where it was invented as an expensive alternative for papyrus.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word parchment.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A notebook full of the finest

    Creamy rich girl parchment pages

    Slowly filled with all your passing days

    Every sacred word

    Paints a picture.

    (Calculating bimbo, by Belle and Sebastian)

    October 14, 2010