parlor

See also: pärlor and parlør

English

Alternative forms

• parlour (British)

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English parlour, from Old French parleor, parloir, parleoir, from the verb parler (“to speak”); compare Medieval Latin parlātōrium. Doublet of parloir.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑːlə/
• (General American) enPR: pärʹlər, IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹlɚ/
• (Nigeria) IPA^(key): /ˈpaːlɔː/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)lə(ɹ)

Noun

parlor (plural parlors)

2. (dated outside Mid-Atlantic US) The living room of a house, or a room for entertaining guests; a room for talking; a sitting-room or drawing room.

   Synonyms: living room, sitting room, drawing room, (UK) lounge

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter XII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all.

3. (archaic) The apartment in a monastery or nunnery where the residents are permitted to meet and converse with each other or with visitors from the outside.
4. (dated) A comfortable room in a public house.
   • 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 135:

     Immediately at hand was a small, mean public-house - one of those dingy establishments that seem to express, by their morbid and retiring appearance, a certain anxiety to escape the eye of the police - and into the parlour of this hostel Quin promptly led the way.

   • 1957 July 4, The Nepean Times, Penrith, NSW, page 2, column 2:

     There had been a surprise party and some had entered his hotel parlour to get drink; before he was aware of it the accordion was being played in the room.

5. (chiefly Southern US) A covered open-air patio.
6. A shop or other business selling goods or services specified by context.

   tattoo parlor   pizza parlor   ice cream parlor

   1. (Philippines) Ellipsis of beauty parlor.
7. A shed used for milking cattle; a milking parlor.

Hypernyms

• room

Derived terms

• beauty parlor
• beer parlor
• betting parlor
• chili parlor
• funeral parlor
• horse parlor
• ice-cream parlor
• ice cream parlor
• massage parlor
• milking parlor
• nonparlor
• oyster parlor
• parlor car
• parlor-game
• parlor game
• parlor guitar
• parlor house
• parlorish
• parlor LARP
• parlorless
• parlor maid
• parlormaid
• parlor match
• parlor palm
• parlor pink
• parlor trick
• pigs in the parlour
• pizza parlor
• sky parlor
• sun parlor
• tanning parlor
• tattoo parlor

Translations

room for talking, room for entertaining guests, living room

• Bulgarian: прие́мна (bg) f (priémna), сало́н (bg) m (salón)
• Esperanto: salono
• French: parloir (fr) m, salon (fr) m
• German: Wohnzimmer (de) n, Salon (de) m
• Japanese: 客室 (ja) (kyakushitsu), 客間 (ja) (きゃくま, kyakuma)
• Māori: pāra
• Russian: приёмная (ru) f (prijómnaja)
• Scots: chaumer
• Spanish: sala (es) f, sala de estar f
• Swedish: finrum (sv) n, salong (sv) c

drawing room

• Bulgarian: всекидне́вна (bg) f (vsekidnévna)
• Esperanto: salono
• Finnish: salonki (fi)
• French: salon (fr) m
• German: Empfangszimmer (de) n, Salon (de) m, Sprechzimmer (de) n, Stube (de) f, Wohnzimmer (de) n
• Hungarian: szalon (hu), társalgó (hu)
• Lithuanian: svetainė (lt)
• Norwegian: dagligstue (no) m or f, dagstue m or f, stue (no) m or f
• Swedish: vardagsrum (sv) n
• Turkish: oturma odası (tr), salon (tr)

comfortable room in a public house

• Danish: salon (da) c
• French: salon (fr) m
• Swedish: salong (sv) c

shop or other business selling goods specified by context.

• French: salon (fr) m
• Swedish: salong (sv) c, bar (sv) c, butik (sv) c

shed used for milking cattle

• Bulgarian: доилна (bg) f (doilna)
• French: salle de traite f

Further reading

• “parlor”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “parlor”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “parlor”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Cebuano

Etymology

Short for English beauty parlor.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: par‧lor

Noun

parlor

1. a beauty parlor