parchment

/ˈpɑrtʃmənt/

/ˈpɑtʃmɪnt/

Other forms: parchments

Parchment is what people used to write on before paper was common, hundreds of years ago. Instead of being made from trees, parchment was made from animal skins.

As early as the second century BCE, ancient Greeks invented a method of treating animal skins to make a writing surface, parchment, that was less expensive than the papyrus they used before that. Parchment continued to be used through the 1400s, when Europeans began making paper. These days, you're most likely to see parchment in a museum or historical movie. The word comes from the name of the city where it was invented, Pergamon.

Definitions of parchment

1. noun

   a superior paper resembling sheepskin
   type of:

   paper

   a material made of cellulose pulp derived mainly from wood or rags or certain grasses
2. noun

   skin of a sheep or goat prepared for writing on
   synonyms: lambskin, sheepskin

   types:

   vellum

   fine parchment prepared from the skin of a young animal e.g. a calf or lamb

   type of:

   animal skin

   the outer covering of an animal