parlay
UK[ˈpɑːleɪ]US[ˈpɑːrleɪ]
v
To use an initial advantage or small amount of money to gain a much larger or more significant success, especially in gambling or investing.
v
To exploit or build upon one success to achieve further success.
n
A series of bets in which the winnings from one bet are used as the stake for the next.
Etymology
The word 'parlay' entered English in the early 18th century from the French verb 'paroli', which was a term used in the card game faro. This French term itself was borrowed from the Italian 'parolo', meaning "a bet on a card". The Italian word traces back to the Latin 'par', meaning "equal". The semantic journey is intriguing: from the core idea of "equal" or "pair", the term evolved in the context of gambling to signify a specific type of bet, and then in English, it broadened into the modern abstract sense of leveraging one gain to achieve another, a logical extension of the gambling practice of reinvesting winnings.
Analysis
The word 'parlay' is a simplex loanword from French. It does not contain separable, meaningful morphemes within its modern English spelling.
Examples
He hoped to parlay his early success in local politics into a national campaign.
The investor managed to parlay a small inheritance into a vast fortune.
She placed a risky parlay on three consecutive football games.