different between parcel vs quantity

English

Etymology

From Middle English parcel, from Old French parcelle (“a small piece or part, a parcel, a particle”), from Vulgar Latin *particella, diminutive of Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of pars (“part, piece”). Doublet of particle.

Pronunciation

• enPR: pär?-s?l, IPA^(key): /?p??s?l/
  • (General Australian) IPA^(key): [?p?a?.s??]
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): [?p???.s??]
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [?p???.s??]
• Rhymes: -??(r)s?l
• Hyphenation: par?cel

Noun

parcel (plural parcels)

1. A package wrapped for shipment.

   Synonym: package

   • At twilight in the summer […] the mice come out. They […] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly […] on the floor.
2. An individual consignment of cargo for shipment, regardless of size and form.
3. A division of land bought and sold as a unit.

   Synonym: plot

4. (obsolete) A group of birds.
5. An indiscriminate or indefinite number, measure, or quantity; a collection; a group.
   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, Act II, Scene 3,^[2]

     […] this youthful parcel

     Of noble bachelors stand at my bestowing,

   • 1847, Herman Melville, Omoo, Part 2, Chapter 79,^[3]

     […] instead of sitting (as she ought to have done) by her good father and mother, she must needs run up into the gallery, and sit with a parcel of giddy creatures of her own age […]

6. A small amount of food that has been wrapped up, for example a pastry.
7. A portion of anything taken separately; a fragment of a whole; a part.
   • 1731, John Arbuthnot, An essay concerning the nature of aliments, London: J. Tonson, Chapter 4, p. 85,^[4]

     The same Experiments succeed on two Parcels of the White of an Egg […]

   • 1881, John Addington Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy, Volume 5, Part I, New York: Henry Holt, Chapter 1, p. 2,^[5]

     The parcels of the nation adopted different forms of self-government, sought divers foreign alliances.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• lot
• allotment

Verb

parcel (third-person singular simple present parcels, present participle parceling or parcelling, simple past and past participle parceled or parcelled)

1. To wrap something up into the form of a package.
2. To wrap a strip around the end of a rope.

   Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and serve the other way.

3. To divide and distribute by parts or portions; often with out or into.
   • 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act II, Scene 2,^[6]

     Their woes are parcell’d, mine are general.

   • 1667, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, London: H. Herringman, Act I, Scene 2, p. 12,^[7]

     Those ghostly Kings would parcel out my pow’r,

     And all the fatness of my Land devour;

   • 1864, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field” in Enoch Arden, etc., London: Edward Moxon, pp. 94-95,^[8]

     Then the great Hall was wholly broken down,

     And the broad woodland parcell’d into farms;

4. To add a parcel or item to; to itemize.
   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act V, Scene 2,^[9]

     […] that mine own servant should

     Parcel the sum of my disgraces by

     Addition of his envy!

Translations

Adverb

parcel (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Part or half; in part; partially.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2, Act II, Scene 1,^[10]

     Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet […]

   • 1826, Walter Scott, Woodstock, or The Cavalier, Chapter 4,^[11]

     […] as the worthy dame was parcel blind and more than parcel deaf, knowledge was excluded by two principal entrances […]

   • 1864, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Aylmer’s Field” in Enoch Arden, etc., London: Edward Moxon, p. 59,^[12]

     here was one [a hut] that, summer-blanch’d,

     Was parcel-bearded with the traveller’s-joy

     In Autumn, parcel ivy-clad;

Further reading

• parcel in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• parcel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Placer, carpel, craple, placer

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from French parcelle (“parcel”), from Latin particula (“particle”), diminutive of pars (“part”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [p???s?l?]

Noun

parcel c (singular definite parcellen, plural indefinite parceller)

1. parcel, lot (subdivided piece of land registred independently in official records)
2. (informal) detached house

   Synonym: parcelhus

Inflection

Portuguese

Noun

parcel m (plural parcéis)

1. a shoal, a sandbank

   Synonyms: vau, vado, baixo, baixio, esparcel, restinga, sirte

English

Etymology

From Middle English quantite, from Old French quantité, from Latin quantit?s (“quantity”), from quantus (“how much”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kw?n.t?.ti/
• (General American) enPR: kw?n?(t)?t?, IPA^(key): /?kw?n(t)?ti/, [?k?w?n(?)??i], [?k?w?n(t?)?t?i]
  • Note: This is with a relaxed middle T, and is only used in colloquial contexts by many speakers.
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?kw?nd?di/, /?kw?n???i/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /?kwæn.t?.ti/

Noun

quantity (countable and uncountable, plural quantities)

1. A fundamental, generic term used when referring to the measurement (count, amount) of a scalar, vector, number of items or to some other way of denominating the value of a collection or group of items.

2. An indefinite amount of something.

   Some soap making oils are best as base oils, used in a larger quantity in the soap, while other oils are best added in a small quantity.

3. A specific measured amount.

4. A considerable measure or amount.

5. (metrology) Property of a phenomenon, body, or substance, where the property has a magnitude that can be expressed as number and a reference.
6. (mathematics) Indicates that the entire preceding expression is henceforth considered a single object.
   • 2006, Jerome E. Kaufmann and Karen Schwitters, Elementary and Intermediate Algebra: A Combined Approach, p 89

     For problems 58-67, translate each word phrase into an algebraic expression. […] 65. x plus 9, the quantity squared

   • 2005, R. Mark Sirkin, Statistics For The Social Sciences, p137

     The second, ${\displaystyle (\sum x)^{2}}$, read "summation of x, quantity squared," tells us to first add up all the xs to get ${\displaystyle \sum x}$ and then square ${\displaystyle \sum x}$ to get ${\displaystyle (\sum x)^{2}}$.

   • 1985, Serge Lang, Math!: Encounters with High School Students, p54

     ANN. ${\displaystyle ra}$ quantity cubed.

     SERGE LANG. That's right, ${\displaystyle (ra)^{3}}$.

Usage notes

• In mathematics, used to unambiguously orate mathematical equations; it is extremely rare in print, since there is no need for it there.

Synonyms

• Qty

Derived terms

• unknown quantity

Related terms

Translations

See also

• measure
• unit

Further reading

• quantity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• quantity in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• quantity at OneLook Dictionary Search