Parvys

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An enclosed porch or open area in front of a church, especially a cathedral, once used as a meeting place
2. The paved space or covered entrance that stands outside the main doors of a church or cathedral
3. A forecourt or porch leading into a large church, often an archaic term for such an entrance area

Etymology: Before it named a churchyard square, this word meant paradise. The Greek "paradeisos" meant a walled park or enclosure, and it came from an Old Persian term for a walled garden. Medieval Latin "paradisus" was then used for the enclosed forecourt of a church, often with a fountain for washing before entering, and the forecourt was called that because it looked like a garden enclosure. Old French turned this into "parevis", which English adopted in Middle English as "parvys" or "parvis". In English it came to mean the porch or open space in front of a church, and the sense of a porch was the one most often used. The modern French sense survives in the name of the square in front of Notre-Dame in Paris, the Parvis Notre-Dame, which is still a paved open space before a cathedral. The word is now rare in English, mostly found in historical writing and in discussions of church architecture.

Synonyms: porch, portico, vestibule, narthex