parcel

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An object wrapped up to be sent or carried, especially by post.

   A brown paper parcel was waiting on my doorstep.

2. 2
   noun

   A piece of land bought or sold as a single unit.

   They bought a small parcel of land near the river.

3. 3
   verb

   To divide something into parts and share it out.

   The developers parceled the land into building plots.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Parcel came into Middle English from Latin particula ‘small part’, derived from pars ‘part’. It originally denoted a section of a larger whole, as in a parcel of land; the modern package sense developed in the mid-16th century, initially referring chiefly to the goods or quantity wrapped together.

From Middle English parcel, from Old French parcelle (“a small piece or part, a parcel, a particle”), from Late Latin particella, diminutive of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of partem (“part, piece”). Doublet of particle.

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