parish

The word 'parish' entered English in the late 13th century from the Old French 'paroisse', meaning a diocese or church district. This Old French term derived from the Late Latin 'parochia', a variant of 'paroecia', which itself came from the Greek 'paroikia', meaning 'a sojourning in a foreign land' or 'a community of sojourners'. The Greek root is a compound of 'para-' (beside, near) and 'oikos' (house). The semantic evolution is profound: from its original sense of a temporary dwelling among strangers, the term in Christian ecclesiastical Latin came to denote the community of Christians, seen as temporary residents in the earthly world, and finally narrowed to refer to the local territory and congregation served by a single church.

The word 'parish' is a simplex loanword from French. It cannot be meaningfully segmented into smaller morphemes based on its current English spelling.