Parchment

How to spell parchment

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce parchment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does parchment mean?

1. nounA stiff, cream-coloured writing surface traditionally made from treated animal skin, or paper resembling it.

Parchment in a sentence

• The museum displayed a medieval map drawn on parchment.

• She lined the baking tray with a sheet of greaseproof parchment.

Where does parchment come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to Pergamum, an ancient city in Asia Minor (in modern Turkey) that was famous for preparing fine writing surfaces made from treated animal skin. The Latin name for the material was pergamina or charta Pergamena, literally 'the paper of Pergamum', and the place name is the unexpected origin of the modern spelling. As the word passed into Old French it became parchemin, and English borrowed it during the 1200s, gradually settling on the spelling 'parchment'. The 'ch' that surprises people actually preserves a trace of that French stage of the word. By the way, the substance itself is genuine animal skin (often sheep or goat), which is why true parchment differs from ordinary wood-pulp paper, and why the word still carries an air of old documents and formal certificates.

How the word is built

• parch- (from Pergamum, the ancient city)
• -ment (noun suffix)