noun / adjective

parchment

PARCH-muhnt/ˈpɑːrtʃmənt/

Prepared animal skin or paper resembling it, used for writing.

The pale parchment retains a hide-shaped outline beside the quill and ink pot.

A prepared, pale animal-skin writing sheet retaining its recognizable hide outline, with a curled edge revealing its thin leathery substance, beside a quill and small ink pot.

Etymology

Latin pergamena connects the material to Pergamon, the city where prepared animal skin supposedly first replaced papyrus as a writing surface. The name thus preserves a geographical association.

In context

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This goatskin is about to be turned into parchment, an old kind of paper made from animal skin. It goes through a laborious process of having every last hair scraped off.

How Animal Hides Are Made Into Parchment At The Last Workshop In The US | Still Standing

More examples

We choose cream-colored parchment paper for the wedding invitations.
The museum displays a signed parchment from the eighteenth century.
Her thin, parchment skin bruises at the slightest touch.

Forms

parchment · parchments

Similar words

vellum: Usually finer parchment, traditionally prepared from calfskin rather than sheepskin.
paper: Usually made from plant fibers rather than prepared animal skin.