Other forms: parchments
Parchment is prepared animal skin, written on before paper was available. A parchment scroll, written on parchment, a sheet of parchment.
It is made from sheep, goat or calf skin, scraped, stretched and dried rather than tanned, and vellum is the finest grade, from calf. It lasts for centuries: most surviving medieval documents are on parchment and most medieval paper is gone. British Acts of Parliament were printed on vellum until 2017. Note parchment paper, which is a baking product and not parchment at all.
1nounparchmentPrepared animal skin, written on before paper.
“The medieval charter was written on parchment made from sheepskin.”
parchment is a writing material.
Latin pergamina comes from Pergamon, a city in what is now Turkey, where the material was supposedly developed when Egypt cut off the papyrus supply. The material is named after a trade dispute.
Middle English
parchemyn
English, today
parchment
From Middle English parchemyn. From Middle English parchemyn, parchement, from Old French parchemin, via Latin pergamīna, from Ancient Greek Περγαμηνός (“of Pergamon”), which is named for the ancient city of Pergamon (modern Bergama) in Asia Minor, where it was invented as an expensive alternative for papyrus. Cognate with Danish pergament, Dutch perkament, French parchemin, German Pergament, Greek περγαμηνή, Italian pergamena, Norwegian pergament, Portuguese pergaminho, Galician pergameo, Romanian pergament, Russian пергамент, Spanish pergamino, and Swedish pergament.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA