"P" Word Origins

paraclinical

Origin

From para- + clinical.

parade

French

From French parade ("display, military review"), from parer ("to prepare, adorn") — a doublet of "pare."

paradigm

Greek

From Greek paradeigma ("pattern"), from paradeiknymi ("to show side by side, compare").

paradigm shift

Greek

Paradigm comes via Latin from Greek paradeigma, meaning pattern or example. The phrase is associated with the philosophy of science, where paradigm means the whole framework of assumptions a scientific community works within.

paradise

Old English

From Greek paradeisos, originally meaning a walled garden or park, tracing back to a Persian word for an enclosed pleasure-ground — it displaced the earlier Old English word neorxnawang.

paradox

Latin

From Greek paradoxos ("unexpected, contrary to opinion"), via Latin and French.

paradoxical

Origin

From paradox + -ical.

paraffin

Latin

From Latin parum ("too little") + affinis ("related"), coined to describe the substance's low chemical reactivity — literally "little affinity."

paragon

Italian

From Italian paragone, from paragonare ("to test against a touchstone"), from Greek roots meaning "to sharpen or whet" — the idea of testing something against a standard.

paragraph

Greek

From Greek paragraphos, from para- ("beside") + grapho ("to write") — originally a mark noting a new section of text.

Paraguay

Origin

From Guarani Paraguai, thought to combine paragua ("feather crown") with i ("river").

parakeet

French

From French perroquet, likely a diminutive form of the name Pierre, related to "parrot."

paralegal

Origin

From para- ("alongside") + legal.

parallel

Latin

From Latin parallelus, from Greek parallelos ("beside one another").

parallels

Greek

From Greek parallēlos, from para- 'beside' and allēlois 'one another', so literally 'beside each other'.

paralysis

Greek

From Greek paralysis, from paralyo ("to disable on one side") — a doublet of "palsy."

paralytic

Greek

From Greek paralytikos, related to paralysis.

paralytical

Origin

From paralytic + -al.

paralyze

French

From French paralyser, ultimately from the same Greek root as "paralysis."

paramedic

Origin

From para- + medic.

parameter

Origin

From French paramètre, from New Latin parametrum (“parameter”), from Ancient Greek παρα- (para-, “beside”) + μέτρον (métron, “measure”).

parameters

Greek

From Greek para 'beside, alongside' and metron 'measure', by way of modern Latin parametrum in geometry.

paramilitary

Origin

From para- + military.

paramount

Old French

From Anglo-Norman paramount, literally "above" — from Old French par ("by, through") + amont ("upward, toward the mountain"). The sense of "supreme" grew naturally out of "above everything else."

paramour

Old French

From Old French par amour, "by/through love" — originally an adverbial phrase meaning "passionately" that was later reinterpreted as a noun meaning "beloved person."

parang

Origin

Borrowed from Malay parang.

paranoia

Ancient Greek

Borrowed from Ancient Greek paranoia, "madness," from para- ("beside, beyond") + nous ("mind") — literally, a mind that has gone "beside itself."

paranoid

Origin

From paranoia + the suffix -oid ("resembling, like").

paranormal

Origin · 1905

From para- ("beyond") + normal; the term entered English around 1905 to describe events outside ordinary scientific explanation.

parapet

Italian

From Italian parapetto, literally "chest-high" (para- "protecting" + petto "chest") — a wall built to about chest height for protection.

parapherna

Origin

From Late Latin parapherna, from Ancient Greek παράφερνα (parápherna, “things additional to a dowry”), from παρα- (para-, “beside”) + φερνή (phernḗ, “dowry”). In the propertied classes, a dowry was placed under the control of the husband, while the 'paraphernalia' which she brought with her remained the wife’s property.

paraphernal

Origin

From Medieval Latin paraphernālis, from Late Latin parapherna + Latin -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). By surface analysis, paraphern(a) + -al.

paraphernalia

Medieval Latin

From Medieval Latin paraphernalia, "goods belonging to a wife beyond her dowry," from Greek para- ("beside") + pherne ("dowry"). The word broadened from a legal term for a wife's personal property into "assorted gear" generally.

paraphernals

Origin

From Middle French parapharnelz. By surface analysis, paraphernal + -s. Attested since the early 1500s, whereas the adjective paraphernal since the late 1700s.

paraphrase

Middle French

From Middle French paraphrase, ultimately from Greek paraphrasis, "a telling in other words" (para- "beside" + phrazein "to tell").

paraphrasis

Origin

From Latin paraphrasis, from Ancient Greek παράφρασις (paráphrasis). Compare periphrasis.

paraplegic

Greek

From para- ("beside, half") + the combining form -plegic (from Greek plege, "a stroke, blow"), the same root seen in "quadriplegic."

parasail

Origin

From para- + sail.

parasite

Greek

From Greek parasitos, originally "a person who eats at another's table" (para- "beside" + sitos "food") — a flattering guest who dined for free before the word took on its harsher biological and social meanings.

parasitic

Origin

From parasite + -ic.

parasol

French

From French parasol, from Italian parasole — para- ("to shield against") + sole ("sun"), literally "sun-shield."

paratrooper

Origin

A blend of parachute and trooper, coined for airborne infantry.

parcel

Latin

From Old French parcelle, "a small piece or part," from Latin particula ("particle") — parcel and particle are doublets, both descending from the same Latin root.

parch

Origin

From Middle English parchen, paarchen (“to parch; dry; roast”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant of Middle English perchen (“to roast”).

parchment

Old French

From Old French parchemin, ultimately from Greek Pergamenos, "of Pergamon" — the ancient city (in modern-day Turkey) credited with developing this animal-skin writing material as a substitute for papyrus.

pard

Origin

From pardner (“partner”), by shortening.

pardal

Origin

From Latin pardalis, from Ancient Greek πάρδαλις (párdalis), from an unattested Old Iranian word; compare Persian پلنگ (palang), Pashto پړانګ (pṙâng).

pardner

Origin

A dialectal spelling that reflects how "partner" is pronounced in some American regional accents, especially the classic Western drawl.