What does parqueting mean?
Parqueting is the craft or process of laying parquet flooring, in which small pieces of wood are fitted together in repeating geometric designs. As a verb, parqueting means to cover a floor or other surface with this decorative woodwork. The term is especially associated with fine furniture, interior flooring, and the restoration of historic buildings. Parqueting can also denote the activity in its abstract form, as in a reference to the careful parqueting of an old ballroom floor. Both parqueting and parquetting are encountered in English, with the latter serving as an alternative spelling of the gerund or present participle. Compared with simply saying laying a floor, parqueting more specifically evokes decorative, carefully fitted hardwood work. It is therefore a useful word when precision matters, particularly in discussing craftsmanship, interiors, or the conservation of period buildings.
The craft or process of laying parquet floors or other surfaces with small pieces of wood arranged in decorative patterns.
"The exhibition demonstrates the traditional art of parqueting in eighteenth-century European furniture."
Normally an uncountable process or craft noun; it is not commonly used in the plural.
To lay a floor or surface with parquetry, usually in a repeating geometric pattern.
"They spent the winter parqueting the floor of the new library."
This is the present participle of parquet and is normally used transitively with a floor, room, or surface as its object.
As a noun denoting a craft or process, parqueting is normally used as an uncountable mass noun.
"Careful parqueting gave the hall a distinctive geometric floor."
Parqueting turns an ordinary floor into a geometric puzzle made from wood.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does parqueting come from?
Parqueting comes through English parquet, a borrowing from French parquet, “wooden flooring.” The French verb parqueter, meaning to lay parquet flooring, developed from the same word; French parquet is ultimately related to parc, “park,” which is also the source of English park. English later formed parqueting and the alternative spelling parquetting to describe the activity of laying such floors.
Related word forms
How parqueting is actually used
This is chiefly a specialist woodworking and historic-preservation term. It is normally transitive as a verb and is commonly used in the forms parqueting and parquetting; the process noun is ordinarily treated as uncountable.
Easily confused with parqueting
Parquet is the wood flooring itself or the verb meaning to lay such flooring, whereas parqueting names the process of laying it.