civil parish

Meanings

1. In any of various countries, an administrative subdivision of an area, often of a county.
2. A civil subdivision of a British county, often corresponding to an earlier ecclesiastical parish; a similar subdivision in Ireland.

Etymology

The word parish for a local area of church and/or government authority predates rigorous modern distinctions between ecclesiastical and civil affairs. The term civil parish uses intentional pleonasm, in a way that natural language sometimes does, to easily and efficiently ensure clarity through disambiguation. By the same underlying principle, the term ecclesiastical parish is retronymic.