Parlor

How to spell parlor

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce parlor

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does parlor mean?

1. nounA room in a home set aside for sitting and receiving visitors.
2. nounA shop or business offering a specified service, such as ice cream, beauty, or funeral arrangements.

Parlor in a sentence

• The old farmhouse had a formal parlor that the family rarely used.

• The children begged to stop at the ice cream parlor after the game.

• Grandmother kept the good china displayed in the parlor.

• She booked an appointment at the nail parlor downtown.

Where does parlor come from?

Language of origin: French

This word goes back to the Old French parleor or parlur, a noun built from the verb parler, meaning 'to speak', which itself descends from the Latin parabolare, 'to talk' (the same root that gives us 'parable' and the modern French 'parler'). In medieval monasteries the parlor was literally the room set aside for conversation, the one place where silent monks were permitted to talk to visitors or to one another. English took the word in the 1200s and gradually broadened it from that monastic talking room to any sitting room kept for receiving guests, and later to commercial 'parlors' such as ice cream parlors and funeral parlors. The British and Canadian spelling keeps the French-looking 'parlour', while American English trimmed the ending to 'parlor', following Noah Webster's preference for the simpler '-or'. Remembering that the room is for talking (parler) helps explain why the spelling clings to that 'parl' rather than anything like 'parlour' being purely decorative.

How the word is built

• parl- (from Old French parler: to speak)
• -or (American noun ending, from Latin -orium denoting a place)

British and American spelling

Parlor is the American spelling. British English spells it parlour.