parish

Etymology 1

From Middle English parisshe, from Old French paroisse (compare the obsolete variant paroch, from Anglo-Norman paroche, parosse), from Late Latin parochia, from Ancient Greek παροικία (paroikía, “a dwelling abroad”).

noun

1. In the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran and Roman Catholic Church, an administrative part of a diocese that has its own church.
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. In some countries, an administrative subdivision of an area.
   1. An administrative subdivision in the U.S. state of Louisiana that is equivalent to a county in other U.S. states.

verb

1. (transitive) To place (an area, or rarely a person) into one or more parishes.
   […] [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 […] 1917, Annual Report of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Board of Home Missions and Church Extension, page 70
   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. 1972, Winter's Tales from Ireland, volume 2, page 55
   1991, Melissa Bradley Kirkpatrick, Re-parishing the Countryside: Progressivism and Religious Interests in Rural Life Reform, 1908-1934:
   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. 1992, Parish and town councils in England: a survey, pages 17 and 21
   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, […] 2011, Sustainable development in the Localism Bill: third report, page 5
2. (intransitive) To visit residents of a parish.
   […] 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." 1896, Mrs. Humphry Ward, Sir George Tressady, volume 1
   "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." 1903, Maxwell Gray, Richard Rosny, page 210
   "Are you going ‘parishing’ this morning?" inquired Diana, as she watched him fill and light his pipe. 1921, Margaret Pedler, The Splendid Folly, page 46
   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; […] 2013, Ann Bridge, Moments of Knowing

Etymology 2

verb

1. Pronunciation spelling of perish, representing Mary-marry-merry English.