a. [ L. Parnassius. ] Of or pertaining to Parnassus. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Parnassus. ] (Zool.) Any one of numerous species of butterflies belonging to the genus Parnassius. They inhabit the mountains, both in the Old World and in America. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. parnassien. ] One of a school of French poets of the Second Empire (1852-70) who emphasized metrical form and made little use of emotion as poetic material; -- so called from the name (Parnasse contemporain) of the volume in which their first poems were collected in 1866. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]