Other forms: parties
A party is a gathering held for enjoyment, or an organised political group. Throw a party, the Labour party, a search party.
The senses all come from the idea of a part — a party is a portion of people set aside for something, whether for pleasure, politics or a search. In law the parties are the sides to a contract or a case. Note party as a verb, meaning to celebrate.
1nounpartyA gathering held for enjoyment.~2%
“We're having a party on Saturday to celebrate her birthday.”
2nounorganisedAn organised political group.~98%
“The two main parties both promised to cut taxes before the election.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 7 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
party is a gathering, or a group.
Old French partie means a part or share, from Latin pars. All the senses come from a set-apart group.
Old French
partie — side, part; portion, share; separation, division
Anglo-Norman
partie
Middle English
party
English, today
party
Built from
From Middle English party, partye, partie, from Anglo-Norman partie, from Old French partie (“side, part; portion, share; separation, division”) literally “that which is divided”, noun use of feminine of past participle of Old French partir (“to divide, separate”), from Latin partire (“to share, part, distribute, divide”), from pars (“a part, piece, a share”); see also part. c. a doublet of partita. The sense of communist party of a communist state derives Russian партия, short for Коммунистическая партия. by surface analysis, part + -y.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA