PARLIAMENT

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French parlement, from parler Date: 13th century a formal conference for the discussion of public affairs, 2. an assemblage of the nobility, clergy, and commons called together by the British sovereign as the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, a similar assemblage in another nation or state, 3. the supreme legislative body of a usually major political unit that is a continuing institution comprising a series of individual assemblages, the British House of Commons, one of several principal courts of justice existing in France before the Revolution of 1789