imparlance

English

Alternative forms

• emparlance
• inparliance

Etymology

Ultimately from Anglo-Norman emparlance, from the verb Old French emparler. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

imparlance (countable and uncountable, plural imparlances)

1. (obsolete) Discussion, especially before some action is taken; conference, debate.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Full oftentimes did Britomart assay / To speake to them, and some emparlance move; / But they for nought their cruell hands would stay […].

   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Cadenus and Vanessa:

     There was on both sides much to say; / She'd hear the cause another day; / And so she did, and then a third, / She heard it—there she kept her word; / But with rejoinder and replies, / Long bills, and answers, stuffed with lies / Demur, imparlance, and essoign, / The parties ne'er could issue join: / For sixteen yers the cause was spun, / And then stood where it first begun.

2. (law, obsolete) Time given to a party to talk or converse with his opponent, originally with the object of effecting, if possible, an amicable adjustment of the suit, but also used to obtain further time to plead or answer allegations.