Barrett Seaman 
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Fifteenth-century scientists first used "parietal" (from Latin paries, meaning "wall of a cavity or hollow organ") to describe a pair of bones of the roof of the skull between the frontal and posterior bone. Later, "parietal" was also applied to structures connected to or found in the same general area as these bones; the parietal lobe, for example, is the middle division of each hemisphere of the brain. In the 19th century, botanists adopted "parietal" as a word for ovules and placentas attached to the walls of plant ovaries. It was also in the 19th century that "parietal" began to be heard on college campuses, outside of the classroom; in 1837, Harvard College established the Parietal Committee to be in charge of "all offences against good order and decorum within the walls."
Examples of parietal in a Sentence
Quanta Magazine, 18 Oct. 2024
Brain scans showed those who received liraglutide lost nearly 50% less volume in the frontal, temporal, parietal and total gray matter − areas of the brain that control memory, learning, language and decision making.
—Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY, 30 July 2024
Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 12 July 2012
Not all of the study's archeologists would agree that the findings fully qualify as parietal, which is often used to describe paintings on cave walls and meaning something cannot move from place to place.
—Scott Gleeson, USA TODAY, 21 Sep. 2021
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Cite this Entry
“Parietal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parietal. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
parietal
1 of 2 adjective
parietal
2 of 2 noun
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