Older Use. a room for the reception and entertainment of visitors to one's home; living room.
a room, apartment, or building serving as a place of business for certain businesses or professions: funeral parlor; beauty parlor.
a somewhat private room in a hotel, club, or the like for relaxation, conversation, etc.; lounge.
Also called locutorium. a room in a monastery or the like where the inhabitants may converse with visitors or with each other.
adjective
advocating something, as a political view or doctrine, at a safe remove from actual involvement in or commitment to action: parlor leftism; parlor pink.
Also especially British, par·lour.
Origin of parlor
1175–1225;Middle Englishparlur < Anglo-French;Old Frenchparleor, equivalent to parl(er) to speak (see parle) + -eor-or2
chiefly British English spelling of parlor (q.v.).
parlor
n.
c.1200, parlur, "window through which confessions were made," also "apartment in a monastery for conversations with outside persons;" from Old French parleor "courtroom, judgment hall, auditorium" (12c., Modern French parloir), from parler "to speak" (see parley (n.)).
Sense of "sitting room for private conversation" is late 14c.; that of "show room for a business" (e.g. ice cream parlor) first recorded 1884. As an adjective, "advocating radical views from a position of comfort," 1910.
