1877, from French maladie de Parkinson (1876), named for English physician James Parkinson (1755-1824), who described it (1817) under the names shaking palsy and paralysis agitans.
1955 (in the "Economist" of Nov. 19), named for its deviser, British historian and journalist Cyril Northcote Parkinson (1909-1993): "work expands to fill the time available for its completion."
