parable [ME] The word parable is from an ecclesiastical Latin sense ‘discourse, allegory’ of Latin parabola ‘comparison, speech’. The source is Greek parabolē ‘placing side by side, application’, from para- ‘beside’ and bolē ‘a throw’. The Latin parabola came to be used for a symmetrical curve in the mid 16th century, and the same Latin root lies behind parley and parole [both LME]. See also palaver, parliament, ballistic.