# A Britishism? What does it mean if the weather is "parky"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791 "2005-04-29T21:43:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/21 "2005-04-30T11:56:55Z")
> [@](#): > > She wasn’t the only British person who called heavy coats “parkas”, but she’s the first person I’d heard it from, and she used it this way… A parka is a specific type of heavy coat, though. Not all heavy coats are parkas. They need to have a fur lined hood for them to be legitimately called parkas, like this one here: [http://www.foundmark.com/Ireland/pages/images/parka-1.jpg](http://www.foundmark.com/Ireland/pages/images/parka-1.jpg) I can only assume that if she was calling all heavy coats parkas that it was a peculiarity of Essex. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/22 "2005-04-30T12:08:10Z")
> [@+MDI](#): > > A parka is a specific type of heavy coat, though. Not all heavy coats are parkas. They need to have a fur lined hood for them to be legitimately called parkas, like this one here: > > [http://www.foundmark.com/Ireland/pages/images/parka-1.jpg](http://www.foundmark.com/Ireland/pages/images/parka-1.jpg) > > I can only assume that if she was calling all heavy coats parkas that it was a peculiarity of Essex. See isn’t it fun how a language evolves. A parka here has no fur and is really just a water resistent/ wind proof jacket thingy ( Oh I just had a memory flashack. A parka is a windcheater!). Some Pommy many years ago taught us how to speak English. Is it not possible that same Pom thought parky meant cold because Alaska means cold? Ok, it is entirely possible we made it up by ourselves, Jandals anyone? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/23 "2005-04-30T12:08:56Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > Ok so Parka comes from Alaska (OH I learned a new thing) but does it seem outrageous to equate parka-Alaska-cold-parky? > > Call me nuts but that makes sense to me. My objection to that explanation isn’t its implausibility, but that it doesn’t correspond to a word that has a very localised usage. Words specific to NE England are far more likely to have a Norse origin (thanks to the Vikings). > [@Anastasaeon](#): > > Makes sense to me, too. I’m not from England or anything, but we have a lot of immigrants from the British Isles - I had a teacher from Essex once, and she would make fun of us young girls in our nylon, winter-heavy coats, and call us a bunch of trainspotters (this was long before the movie, and at 12 years old, I’d never heard of Irvine Welsh), standing in our “parkas”, often as we were lined up outside along the side of the road, pretending we weren’t smoking, huddled together in the freezing cold. That’s nothing to do with the film or the book…it’s to do with actual trainspotters, who gather in groups at the end of platforms, all wearing anoraks, NHS glasses, and clearly with a chronic lack of female attention… ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/24 "2005-04-30T12:11:32Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > My objection to that explanation isn’t its implausibility, but that it doesn’t correspond to a word that has a very localised usage. Words specific to NE England are far more likely to have a Norse origin (thanks to the Vikings). Yeah, “shall we grab a curry after the pub” is full of Norse-ness 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/25 "2005-04-30T12:16:45Z")
More like “want furt ger down th’indian after t’pub?” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/26 "2005-04-30T12:18:34Z")
Yeah that and all. I don’t speak proper Pom anymore 😃 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/27 "2005-04-30T12:18:40Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > Yeah, “shall we grab a curry after the pub” is full of Norse-ness 😃 If you got a slape ale, it would be 😉 Take a look here for Norse/Yorkshire influence: [List of Yorkshire dialect words of Old Norse origin](http://www.viking.no/e/england/e-yorkshire_norse.htm) ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/28 "2005-04-30T12:24:18Z")
You can Norse me all you like, just try telling me Butter chicken is Norse-ish 😃 Sometimes we Colonial types have moments of clarity…the rest of the time we speak crap. I leave the parka/parky debate for you to decide. Obviously it seems as simple as Tikka Marsala to me 🙂 OKKKKKKKKKKK I will shut up, I’m sure I got the fav Indian wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/29 "2005-04-30T12:44:06Z")
_Parky_ isn’t a word used that much here in the east of Scotland, but I’m sure a lot of people would recognise it’s meaning if anyone used it… And I had a jacket called a windcheater when I was growing up in the 60s but it wasn’t a parka - it was pretty much an anorak, although I never heard that term until later. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/30 "2005-04-30T12:56:29Z")
The word “parky” is Inuit in origin, generally thought to be from Canada’s First Nation people. “Parka” is the anglicized version. As stated before, it’s an outer garment with a fur ruff. I don’t know if the Brits somehow adopted this for the current usage, or if their word came from elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/31 "2005-04-30T13:46:46Z")
When I was in sunny Southern California, I looked forward to days that were cold enough for a parka. [O, to be in my N-2B!’](http://www.flyingtigerssurplus.com/big-id-2-shbgid-4863.html) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/32 "2005-04-30T16:49:22Z")
The OED says that the word “parka” was borrowed by the Inuits (Eskimos) of Alaska from the Russian word meaning “skin jacket.” It was then borrowed from them into English (mostly into North American English). The term “anorak” was borrowed from Greenland Inuits into English (mostly into British English). The term “parka” just isn’t used in British English that much, partly because it seldom gets cold enough in the U.K. to be necessary to wear a heavy fur-lined winter coat. The term “anorak” is used in British English, and it means both a somewhat lighter hooded coat and an insult towards nerdy people, presumably because it’s imagined that only nerds wear such coats. I don’t think that “parka” is the source of the word “parky.” Why would a term mostly not used in the U.K. become the northern English slang for “chilly”? Furthermore, the word “parka” is rare in English before the 1920’s. It wasn’t used by anyone except those few people who had lived with the Inuits. It wasn’t till sometime between the 1920’s and the 1950’s that it began to be used for coats made by ordinary clothing manufacturers and not by the Inuits themselves. The OED says that the first cite for “parky” in the sense “chilly” is in 1895. More likely it comes from the sense of the word “parky” whose first cite is in 1831 meaning “land open and spread out like a park.” ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/33 "2005-04-30T17:12:00Z")
> [@](#): > > The term “parka” just isn’t used in British English that much, partly because it seldom gets cold enough in the U.K. to be necessary to wear a heavy fur-lined winter coat. The term “anorak” is used in British English, and it means both a somewhat lighter hooded coat and an insult towards nerdy people, presumably because it’s imagined that only nerds wear such coats. Parka, I’d imagine, is used a lot more than anorak. Parkas keep coming in and out of fashion, whereas the word “anorak” is forever associated with train spotters and their ilk and isn’t widely used anymore. ---
**Author:** ![guinnog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@guinnog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guinnog)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/34 "2005-04-30T17:33:34Z")
> [@Wendell Wagner](#): > > The term “parka” just isn’t used in British English that much, partly because it seldom gets cold enough in the U.K. to be necessary to wear a heavy fur-lined winter coat. Eh? Parka the word is often used here. Parka the jacket too. And it gets pretty parky in the north of Scotland and up in the mountains. Where are you getting your information? TV? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/35 "2005-04-30T17:41:28Z")
guinnog writes: \> Where are you getting your information? TV? Three years of living in the U.K. from 1987 to 1990 and six vacations back there since then. In any case, the term “parka” was still rare in English before the 1920’s. Hardly anyone used it except those who had been to Canada, Alaska, or Greenland and had actually seen the Inuits wear them. And it wasn’t till after that period (possibly as late as the 1950’s) that ordinary clothes manufacturers began making parkas. “Parky” in the sense “chilly” though is first cited in 1895. ---
**Author:** ![Martha\_Medea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@Martha\_Medea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martha_Medea)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/36 "2005-04-30T18:06:14Z")
The parka came into common use in the UK when it became part of the standard issue [Mod uniform.](http://www.lambretta-online.com/products.php?sid=&act=display_pic&name=-Authentic+Style+Lambretta+Fishtail+Parka&id=LMJ6089&cat_id=I3CE1155AE39E7&sub_cat_id=I3CE1157F51AFA) I’ve never associated it with the word “parky”. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/37 "2005-04-30T18:14:04Z")
**Wendell Wagner** , you’re plain wrong. I had a parka when I was about 8, as did every other kid at school. And they’ve more recently been popular due to the Gallagher scum (ie Oasis). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/38 "2005-04-30T18:26:48Z")
What year were you 8 years old? ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/39 "2005-04-30T18:41:50Z")
1988 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791/40 "2005-04-30T18:46:42Z")
O.K., I’m wrong about the use of the word “parka” in the U.K. these days, but my memory of 1987 to 1990 was that no one used the word and no one wore them (but then I was living in Gloucester and Cheltenham, where it’s not very cold in winter). In any case, this part of my post stands: \> In any case, the term “parka” was still rare in English before the 1920’s. Hardly \> anyone used it except those who had been to Canada, Alaska, or Greenland \> and had actually seen the Inuits wear them. And it wasn’t till after that period \> (possibly as late as the 1950’s) that ordinary clothes manufacturers began \> making parkas. “Parky” in the sense “chilly” though is first cited in 1895. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-britishism-what-does-it-mean-if-the-weather-is-parky/301791.md?page=3)