'Parish' is Greek for 'strangers dwelling beside each other' — before it became a church district.
A small administrative district typically having its own church and clergy; (in Louisiana) a county. Also: the inhabitants of a parish considered as a group.
From Old French 'paroisse,' from Late Latin 'parochia' (a diocese, later a parish), alteration of 'paroecia,' from Greek 'paroikía' (a sojourning, a community of strangers), from 'pároikos' (dwelling beside, a neighbor, a sojourner), from 'pará' (beside, near) + 'oîkos' (house, dwelling). The PIE root for 'oîkos' is *weyḱ- (clan, household). A parish is, etymologically, a community of those who 'dwell beside' — neighbors, sojourners, strangers in a foreign land. Key roots: *weyḱ- (Proto-Indo-European: "clan, household").
The Greek word 'oîkos' (house) that lurks inside 'parish' also produced 'economy' (oikonomía — household management), 'ecology' (oikología — study of the household of nature), and 'ecumenical' (oikoumenikós — of the inhabited world). A parish, an economy, an ecosystem, and the ecumenical world are all, at root, about the same thing: how people organize their dwelling-places.