parochial

From Anglo-Norman parochial and its source Late Latin parochialis, an alteration of paroecialis (“of a church province”), from paroecia, from Hellenistic Greek παροικία (paroikía, “stay in a foreign land”), later “community, diocese”, from Ancient Greek πάροικος (pároikos, “neighbouring, neighbour”), from παρα- (para-) + οἶκος (oîkos, “house”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəˈɹəʊkɪəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pəˈɹoʊki.əl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

parochial (comparative more parochial, superlative most parochial)

1. Pertaining to a parish.
2. Characterized by an unsophisticated focus on local concerns to the exclusion of wider contexts; elementary in scope or outlook.

   The use of simple, primary colors in the painting gave it a parochial feel.

   Some people in the United States have been accused of taking a parochial view, of not being interested in international matters.

   • 1918 1st of February, Daniel Desmond Sheehan, “Why I Joined The Army”, in Daily Express, London:

     But for men of principle and honour and straightforward thought there could be no middle course and no paltering with petty issues of party or parochial advantage.

   • 1969, T.C. Smout, A History of the Scottish People 1560-1830, page 341:

     Its atmosphere might have been provincial, but it was never merely parochial.

   • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques Cheltenham (1928)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 60:

     The society had apparently been formed the previous year, but as the Cheltenham Spa Railway Society, which sounded rather parochial and unambitious - particularly as (by all accounts) its founders had gathered in a garden shed in the town.

• parochial school
• parochial vicar
• parochialism
• parochially

parochial (plural parochials)

1. A parochial individual.
   • 2006, Ian Marsh, Democratisation, Governance and Regionalism in East and Southeast Asia

     If the vast majority of the citizens of our Southeast Asian countries are subjects rather than parochials, the question is: are they also participants?

   • 2022, Sumeyya Ilanbey, Daniel Andrews

     Australia is divided between cosmopolitans and parochials.

Borrowed from Latin parochialis. Compare the inherited term paroissial.

parochial m (oblique and nominative feminine singular parochiale)

1. parochial

• ⇒ English: parochial