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Webster 1913 Edition


Parish

Par′ish

,
Adj.
Of or pertaining to a parish; parochial;
as, a
parish
church;
parish
records; a
parish
priest
; maintained by the parish;
as,
parish
poor
.
Dryden.
Parish clerk
.
(a)
The clerk or recording officer of a parish
.
(b)
A layman who leads in the responses and otherwise assists in the service of the Church of England.
Parish court
,
in Louisiana, a court in each parish.

Webster 1828 Edition


Parish

PAR'ISH

,
Noun.
[Low L. parochia; Gr. a dwelling or near residence; near, and house, or to dwell; or more probably from the Gr. a salary or largess, an allowance for support; to afford, yield or supply, whence L. parocha, entertainment given to embassadors at the public expense. If parish is to be deduced from either of these sources, it is probably from the latter, and parish is equivalent to benefice, living, as prebend, from L. proebeo.
1.
The precinct or territorial jurisdiction of a secular priest, or the precinct, the inhabitants of which belong to the same church.
2.
In some of the American states, parish is an ecclesiastical society not bounded by territorial limits; but the inhabitants of a town belonging to one church, though residing promiscuously among the people belonging to another church, are called a parish. This is particularly the case in Massachusetts. In Connecticut, the legal appellation of such a society is ecclesiastical society.

PAR'ISH

,
Adj.
Belonging to a parish; having the spiritual charge of the inhabitants belonging to the same church; as a parish priest.
1.
Belonging to a parish; as a parish church; parish records.
2.
Maintained by the parish; as parish poor.

Definition 2024


parish

parish

English

Noun

parish (plural parishes)

  1. In the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church or certain civil government entities such as the state of Louisiana, an administrative part of a diocese that has its own church.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.
  2. The community attending that church; the members of the parish.
  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. An administrative subdivision in Louisiana that is equivalent to a county in other U.S. states.
Derived terms
Translations

See also

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 []
    • 1972, Winter's Tales from Ireland, volume 2, page 55:
      Father Malachy, a distant cousin, who was parished somewhere in the depths of Co. Monaghan, sat firmly in the chair in the corner, sipping his tea from a china cup.
    • 1991, Melissa Bradley Kirkpatrick, Re-parishing the Countryside: Progressivism and Religious Interests in Rural Life Reform, 1908-1934
    • 1992, Parish and town councils in England: a survey, pages 17 and 21:
      Consequently, approaching half of the non-metropolitan population of England is parished (Table 2.2).
      []
      The South West and East Midlands are also particularly well parished while the North West, West Midlands and South East are poorly parished.
    • 2011, Sustainable development in the Localism Bill: third report (ISBN 0215557050), page 5
      Dr Whitehead: In your written evidence, you have all in different ways made the distinction between NDOs in parished areas and NDOs in non-parished areas, []
  2. (intransitive) To visit residents of a parish.
    • 1896, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Sir George Tressady, volume 1 (ISBN 3842496737):
      [] a chair immediately opposite to Tressady's place remained vacant. It was being kept for the eldest son of the house, his mother explaining carelessly to Lord Fontenoy that she believed he was "Out parishing somewhere, as usual."
    • 1903, Maxwell Gray, Richard Rosny, page 210:
      "You will take pleasure in parishing. Mother used to parish."
      "How do you know I like parishing?"
      "Your uncle said so."
      "Oh! did he?"
      "And you may like the rectory people; it's a fine old house, and often full of visitors."
    • 1921, Margaret Pedler, The Splendid Folly, page 46:
      "Are you going ‘parishing’ this morning?" inquired Diana, as she watched him fill and light his pipe.
    • 2013, Ann Bridge, Moments of Knowing:
      In 1916 he was Rector of Hampton Bishop, a village on the River Wye outside Hereford, and one day while “parishing”, as he called visiting his flock, a farmers' wife, a Mrs. Christopher Field, gave him an account of her father's death-bed; []

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 English.