parpaillot

common noun

Syllable Decomposition

parpaillot

from the Occitan parpaillo, parpalho(n), (Lombard parpaya, Piedmontese parpayun, Italian parpaglione), "butterfly", perhaps by allusion to the infidelity of Protestants, buzzing from church to church. perhaps because they were subjected to the stake, like a night butterfly that comes to burn itself in the flames of a fire or that they gathered at night around the fire. attested in Rabelais in 1535 in the sense of butterfly. one hypothesis is based on the decapitation in 1562 of Jean-Perrin Parpaille, a Protestant leader. another hypothesis, on the white clothes they wore, notably at the siege of Clairac in 1621.

Definitions

Feminine

parpaillote

Plural

parpaillots

See also

parpayot (cn.)