parergy

English

Etymology

Latin parergon, Ancient Greek πάρεργον (párergon); παρά (pará, “beside”) + ἔργον (érgon, “work”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈpæɹə(ɹ)d͡ʒi/

Noun

parergy (plural parergies)

  1. (obsolete) Something unimportant, incidental, or superfluous.
    • 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
      Wherefore the Scriptures being serious, and commonly omitting such parergies, it will be unreasonable from hence to condemn all laughter

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “parergy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams
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