parliament

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European*per-
2. Proto-Indo-European*preh₂-
3. Proto-Hellenic*pərai
4. Ancient Greekπᾰρᾰ́ (părắ)
5. Ancient Greekπαρα- (para-)
6. Proto-Indo-European*gʷelH-
7. Proto-Hellenic*gʷəlnō
8. Ancient Greekβάλλω (bállō)
9. Ancient Greekπαραβάλλω (parabállō)
10. Ancient Greekπαραβολή (parabolḗ)
11. Latinparabola
12. Latinparabolāre
13. Old Frenchparler (to speak)
14. Old Frenchparlement
15. Middle Englishparlement
16. English todayparliament

From Middle English parlement, from Anglo-Norman parliament, parlement, parliment and Old French parlement (“discussion, meeting, negotiation; assembly, council”), from parler (“to speak”) + -ment (“-ment”, suffix forming nouns from verbs, usually indicating an action or state resulting from them) (from Latin -mentum). Compare Medieval Latin parlamentum, parliamentum (“discussion, meeting; council or court summoned by the monarch”), Italian parlamento and Sicilian parramentu.

First known use, by meaning

• from 13th c. A formal council summoned (especially by a monarch) to discuss important issues.
• from 14th c. In many countries, the legislative branch of government, a deliberative assembly or set of assemblies whose elected or appointed members meet to debate the major political issues of the day, make, amend, and repeal laws, authorize the executive branch of government to collect and spend money, and in some cases exercise judicial powers; a legislature.
• from 14th c. A particular assembly of the members of such a legislature, as convened for a specific purpose or period of time (commonly designated with an ordinal number – for example, first parliament or 12th parliament – or a descriptive adjective – for example, Long Parliament, Short Parliament and Rump Parliament).
• from 15th c. A gathering of birds, especially rooks or owls.
• from 19th c. Parliament cake, a type of gingerbread.