Could someone please explain the difference between parochialism and provincialism?
I just looked both up:
Parochial seems to have the first meaning of "of or concerning a parish."
Both seem to share the meaning of being local, narrow, restricted in scope, limited....
Provincialism has the above as its primary meaning; as a secondary meaning it has "allegiance to or concern for one's province rather than one's country."
So perhaps the latter has a slightly broader scope of narrow-mindedness than the former...?! (assuming that provinces tend to be larger than parishes)
instant edit: nearly forgot to add that "parochial," to me, always seems to have a more patronising air than "provincial." The former is arrogantly ignorant/narrow; the latter is innocently so. Summink like that.
And there may be hundreds of parishes in a province. So if being provincial is being small time,
being parochial is being microscopic.
parochial
adj.
5ME parochiele < OFr parochial < ML(Ec) parochialis < LL(Ec) parochia: see PARISH6
1 of or in a parish or parishes
2 restricted to a small area or scope; narrow; limited; provincial !a parochial outlook"
pa[ro4chi[al[ism#
n.
pa[ro4chi[al[ist
n.
pa[ro4chi[al[ly
adv.
Parochial seems to be the expression of interest only in strictly local events. A lot of people here in England are extremely parochial and regard events that occur even a hundred miles away as being "foreign".
Being provincial is, to me, being a country bumpkin, a chawbacon, unsophisticated.
- Pfranz
I like the term chawbacon...images of a couple of chawbacons sittin' around and chewin' the fat.
images of a couple of chawbacons sittin' around and chewin' the fat
Do you suppose the Star Wars writers had this in mind when they named Han Solo's faithful Wookie companion?