Percival

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Percival

/ˈpɜː(ɹ)sɪvəl/

Where it comes from

From Old French Perceval, name of a knight in a twelfth century Arthurian romance by the French poet Chrétien de Troyes. Shaped like Old French percier (“pierce”) + val (“valley”), but probably representing some Gaulish or Old Welsh name, possibly related to Welsh Peredur, from ber (“spear, lance”) (from Middle Welsh ber, from Proto-Brythonic *ber, from Proto-Celtic *beru (“spit”)) + dur (“hard metal, steel”) (see Latin durus).

Cognate with German Parzival and Parsifal.

proper noun Pursifull

A male given name from the Celtic languages. Lancelot Fortescue! What a name! And what was the other son - Percival? He wondered what the first Mrs Fortescue had been like? She had a curious taste in Christian names...
A surname originating as a patronymic.
An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fremont County, Iowa, United States.
A former hamlet in Saskatchewan, Canada.

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MLA

"Percival." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/percival. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

Percival. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/percival

Chicago

"Percival." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/percival.

BibTeX

@misc{percival_2026,
  title = {Percival},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/percival},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}