Emily Dickinson Lexicon

parish, adj. [see parish, n.]

Phrase. “Parish night”: [word play on “parish, n.” and “perish”] churchyard; cemetery; burial ground; death; dark resting place for the dead.

parish (-es), n. [AFr paroche < OFr par(r)oche or OFr paroisse, both < late L. parochia.]

1. Township; village; small municipal region.
2. Churchyard; cemetery; burial ground; [word play on “perish”] death; distance between the living and the dead.

Parley, Peter, proper n. [Fr. parler, to speak.]

Pen name of Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793-1860); New England author of Geography for Children; man who wrote a series of travel books for children; [fig.] educator; adventurer.

parliament, n. [ME < Ofr parlement < parler, to speak + -ment, speaking.]

1. Spokesperson; counsel; lawyer; advocate; defender; [fig.] word; defense.
2. Communication; discourse; articulation; ability to express emotions verbally.

parlor (-s), n. [ME parlur < AFr < OFr < medieval L. parlāre, to speak.] (webplay: distinct, house, room, speak).

1. Room; hall; showroom; place for receiving guests.
2. Mortuary; chamber where a body is kept for viewing after death and prior to burial; [fig.] casket; tomb; grave; burial vault.

part, adv. [L. pars.] (webplay: mentioned, play, small part, whole).

Partially; half; a little; in some degree; to some extent.

part (-s), n. [see part, adv.] (webplay: armies, bear, being, danger, endowments, given, God, gold, grew, griefs, immortal, joys, life, lose, mingled, moon, motion, nature, number, oftener, piece, side, small part, sort, soul, stone, stood, strain, strongly, sun, vital, whole).

1. Portion; fraction; component; piece of the whole.
2. Role; participation; share.
3. Group; number of persons; subset of all people.
4. Step; maneuver; dance movement.
5. Side.
6. Quality; attribute; characteristic; trait.
7. Inadequate substitute; poor imitation; [fig.] human companionship as compared with the presence of God; mortal existence in relationship to immortality.

part (-ed, -ing, -s), v. [Fr. part-ir.] (webplay: bear, commonly, day, decline, friends, go, God, gold, hands, hurt, inheritance, life, light, moon, oftener, party, remote part, side, sight, silver, stood, strongly, universal, whole, will).

1. Separate; divide; split up.
2. Open; sunder; spread apart.
3. Take leave of each other; depart each other's company; bid farewell.
4. Scatter apart; fly in opposite directions.
5. Keep apart; isolate from each other.
6. Release; relax; loosen; let go.
7. Phrase. “Part company”: take leave of each other; bid farewell.
8. Phrase. “Part rank”: disperse; fall out of regular formation.

partake (-n, -s, partaking, partook), v. [Backformation from partaking < part + taking, see part, adv. and take, v.] (webplay: accuse, bear, break, bounties, consecrated bread, crum(b). , day, depart, distinct, estate, Gentiles, gold, immortal, logical part, look, moon, narrow, nature, night, perceptible, possession, powers, question, remote part, situated, small part, strongly, truest, truth, whole, won).

1. Ingest; consume; take into the body; eat or drink.
2. Have a share in; participate in; enjoy.
3. Collect pollen; [fig.] enjoy flowers with all the senses.
4. Receive; accept.

particle (-s), n. [L. particula.] (webplay: gold, immortal, powers, silver, whole).

1. Grain of sand; tiny pebble; minute portion of rock; atom.
2. Basic element; [fig.] fundamental substance of the soul.