the.com/par

means The predetermined standard or norm a thing is measured against — in golf, the number of strokes a skilled player should need for a hole; more broadly, an average or expected level.

from From Latin 'par,' meaning 'equal' — the same root that gives us 'parity' and 'peer' (a cousin, via French, of someone 'equal' in rank). It entered English in the 1600s through stock-exchange talk, where shares traded 'at par' meant at face value, neither above nor below. Golf borrowed the term in the 1800s to name the 'equal' or expected score for a hole — a number you're measured against before you've swung a single club.