pap: phr. pap with a hatchet, infant’s food administered with a hatchet instead of a spoon; an ironical phrase for a form of reproof or chastisement; ‘They give us pap with a spoon before we can speak; and when wee speake for that wee love [like], pap with a hatchet’, Lyly, Mother Bombie, i. 3 (Livia); the name of a controversial tract attributed to Lyly.
parage, lineage; esp. noble lineage, high birth. Morte Arthur, leaf 110, back, 5; bk. vii, c.5; ‘Of high and noble parages’, Udall, Roister Doister, Act i, sc. 2; ed. Arber, p. 17. OF. parage, ‘parente, affinité; noblesse, naissance illustre’ (Didot); see Moisy. O. Prov. paratge, ‘naissance noble, noblesse’ (Levy); Med. L. paraticum, see Ducange (s.v. Paragium).
paramento, an article of apparel. Fletcher, Love’s Pilgrimage, i. 1 (Incubo). Span. paramento, ornament; Med. L. paramentum, ornament; parare, ‘ornare’ (Ducange). See [pare].
paranymph, friend of the bridegroom. Milton, Samson, 1020. F. paranymphe, ‘. . . an assistant in the . . . ordering of bridall businesses’ (Cotgr.). Gk. παράνυμφος, friend of the bridegroom (John iii. 29); Gk. παρά, beside; νύμφη, bride.
parator; see [paritor].
paravaunt, beforehand, first of all. Spenser, F. Q. iii. 2. 16; vi. 10. 15. F. par avant.
parboil, to boil thoroughly. B. Jonson, Every Man in Hum. iv. 1 (Downright). See Dict.
parbreak, parbrake, to vomit. Skelton, Duke of Albany, 322; Hall, Satires, i. 5. 9; Palsgrave. 478; Horman, Vulg. 39 (NED.); also, as sb., vomit, Spenser, F. Q. i. 1. 20. ME. parbrakynge, ‘vomitus’ (Prompt.); the usual form in Prompt. is brakyn, ‘vomo’ (see ed. EETS., Index, p. 749).
parcel, a portion, part, share; ‘A parcel of ground’, Bible, John iv. 5; Fitzherbert, Husbandry, § 68. 63; Merry Wives, i. 1. 237; item, particular, All’s Well, iv. 3. 104; small party, L. L. L. v. 2. 160.
parcel, partly; parcel-gilt, partly gilded, esp. of silver ware. 2 Hen. IV, ii. 1. 94. Parcel, used for parcel-gilt, Beaumont and Fl., Coxcomb, iv. 3 (Mother). So also parcel-bawd; Meas. for M. ii. 1. 63; Fletcher, Captain, i. 1 (Lodovico). Parcel-popish, Fuller, Worthies, Somerset. See NED. (s.v. Parcel, B. 1).