English
parity
Parity comes from Late Latin paritās ‘parity, equality’, and goes back to Latin pār.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpār1‘equal’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEparitās1‘parity, equality’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600parité1
- Englishearliest quotation 2000parity1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English parity
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2000, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Delta Guid, Pearson Education: “Altogether, Microsoft claims a 99% feature parity between 32-bit…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpārWiktionary, English parity‘equal’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEparitāsWiktionary, English parity‘parity, equality’
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600paritéWiktionary, English parity
- Englishearliest quotation 2000parityWiktionary, English parity. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2000, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Delta Guid, Pearson Education: “Altogether, Microsoft claims a 99% feature parity between 32-bit…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *perh₂- ‘to exchange, sell’
through Latin pār ‘equal’
Another origin of parity
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*perh₃-‘to produce, beget’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*parjō‘to bear, give birth’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpariō‘give birth’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEparitas‘parity, equality’
- Englishtodayparity
Today it means
noun Equality; comparability of strength or intensity.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “parity”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin pār / parity