Parcel (Hastings' Dictionary)

Derived from Lat. particula (dim. of pars a ‘part’) through Fr. parcelle, a parcel is ‘a small part’ of anything; and that is the primitive sense in which it is used in AV. The words so tr. are (1) a257 helkah (Gn 33%, Jos 945, Ru 43, 1 Ch 11° ¥), and χωρίον (Jn 4°); and as both words mean specifically a portion (or ‘plot,’ as 1 Ch 11-8 RV) of land, it is always to land (and not, as now, to something that can be carried) that the word is applied.

It was, however, used of ‘a part’ or ‘a small part’ of almost anything, as Erasmus, Commune Crede, fol. 18, ‘Sanctorum communionem. The communion of saynctes. This parcel certayne men do so understonde, that it do by apposytion expounde the nexte parcel ‘oyng before, whiche is sanctam ecclesiam catho- icam, The holy catholike churche.’ So T. Adams, Works, i. p. xix—‘ These Meditations, which before were scattered abroad in parcels, are now presented to thee in one entire volume.’ Shaks.

has it exactly as we now use ‘particle,’ J Henry JV. τι. ii. 159— ‘I will die a hundred thousand deaths Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.’ J. HASTINGS.