You could say that parish and perish (a pair of heterographs — a subset of homophone) have something in common. After all, when you perish, your funeral is generally held at the parish church.
Yep, most of us know that the noun parish generally refers to a church and/or its congregation. In more rare instances, a parish may be a county or, even rarer, a reference to the goal in the sport of curling.
Meanwhile, that verb perish does apply to other living things in the universe. A star might perish when it explodes, fruit definitely perishes when it starts to go bad, fish that wash up on the beach will perish unless helped back into the water, but perish does not actually apply to a parish church. Okay, yeah, so there are some parishes that have perished due to lack of a congregation or funds, but you know what I mean!
Word Confusions…
…started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noir for you from either end.
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| Parish | Perish |
|---|---|
| Credit to: Apple Dictionary.com; Dictionary.com: parish | |
First Parish Church, Weston, Massachusetts, is John Phelan‘s own work under the CC BY 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Perished Fish by MrsBrown is under the Pixabay License, via Pixabay. |
| Part of Grammar: | |
| Noun
Plural: parishes |
Verb, intransitive
Third person present verb: perishes |
[In the Christian Church] A small administrative district typically having its own church and a priest or pastor
[Curling] The area enclosed by a circle 12 or 14 feet (3.7 or 4.2 meters) in diameter at each end of the rink, having the tee in the center |
Suffer death, typically in a violent, sudden, or untimely way
|
| Examples: | |
| This is our parish church.
“I think I can speak for my parish,” said Father John. The Reverend Thomas Bach is the pastor in our parish. Almost every parish in the land had its own curling pond. The curling target is the parish, a round circle of four rings which help define which curling stones are closest to the centre. Well, they’re on the parish, aren’t they. |
A great part of his army perished of hunger and disease.
The old regime had to perish. Most domestic building was in wood and has perished. He wasn’t out to get drunk — perish the thought! |
| Derivatives: | |
| Adjective: inter-parish, parish-pump [British], trans-parish Noun: parishioner |
Adjective: perishable Noun: perishability, perishableness, perishables |
| History of the Word: | |
| Middle English from the Anglo-Norman French and the Old French paroche, from the late Latin parochia, which is from the Greek paroikia meaning sojourning, which is based on para- (beside, subsidiary) + oikos (dwelling). | Middle English from the Old French periss-, a lengthened stem of perir, from the Latin perire meaning pass away, from per- (through, completely) + ire (go). |
C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan…which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them…and we’ll all benefit!
Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions by exploring the index. You may also want to explore Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, and/or the Properly Punctuated.
Pinterest Photo Credits:
Bombed Out Church, Liverpool, UK, by Sharon Vander Kaay is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via VisualHunt.
