parchment

noun

1. the skin of sheep, goats, etc., prepared for use as a material on which to write.
2. a manuscript or document on such material.
3. a stiff, off-white paper resembling this material.
4. a diploma.

noun

1. the skin of certain animals, such as sheep, treated to form a durable material, as for bookbinding, or (esp formerly) manuscripts
2. a manuscript, bookbinding, etc, made of or resembling this material
3. a type of stiff yellowish paper resembling parchment

n.c.1300, parchemin (c.1200 as a surname), from Old French parchemin (11c., Old North French parcamin), from Late Latin pergamena “parchment,” noun use of adjective (as in pergamena charta, Pliny), from Late Greek pergamenon “of Pergamon,” from Pergamon “Pergamum” (modern Bergama), city in Mysia in Asia Minor where parchment supposedly first was adopted as a substitute for papyrus, 2c. B.C.E. Possibly influenced in Vulgar Latin by Latin parthica (pellis) “Parthian (leather).” Altered in Middle English by confusion with nouns in -ment and by influence of Medieval Latin collateral form pergamentum.