Hypertext Webster Gateway: "parlour"
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)
Parlour
(from the Fr. parler, "to speak") denotes an "audience chamber,"
but that is not the import of the Hebrew word so rendered. It
corresponds to what the Turks call a kiosk, as in Judg. 3:20
(the "summer parlour"), or as in the margin of the Revised
Version ("the upper chamber of cooling"), a small room built on
the roof of the house, with open windows to catch the breeze,
and having a door communicating with the outside by which
persons seeking an audience may be admitted. While Eglon was
resting in such a parlour, Ehud, under pretence of having a
message from God to him, was admitted into his presence, and
murderously plunged his dagger into his body (21, 22).
The "inner parlours" in 1 Chr. 28:11 were the small rooms or
chambers which Solomon built all round two sides and one end of
the temple (1 Kings 6:5), "side chambers;" or they may have
been, as some think, the porch and the holy place.
In 1 Sam. 9:22 the Revised Version reads "guest chamber," a
chamber at the high place specially used for sacrificial feasts.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Parlor \Par"lor\, n. [OE. parlour, parlur, F. parloir, LL.
parlatorium. See {Parley}.] [Written also {parlour}.]
A room for business or social conversation, for the reception
of guests, etc. Specifically:
(a) The apartment in a monastery or nunnery where the inmates
are permitted to meet and converse with each other, or
with visitors and friends from without. --Piers Plowman.
(b) In large private houses, a sitting room for the family
and for familiar guests, -- a room for less formal uses
than the drawing-room. Esp., in modern times, the dining
room of a house having few apartments, as a London house,
where the dining parlor is usually on the ground floor.
(c) Commonly, in the United States, a drawing-room, or the
room where visitors are received and entertained.
Note: ``In England people who have a drawing-room no longer
call it a parlor, as they called it of old and till
recently.'' --Fitzed. Hall.
{Parlor car}. See {Palace car}, under {Car}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
parlour
n 1: reception room in an inn or club where visitors can be
received [syn: {parlor}]
2: a room in a private house or establishment where people can
sit and talk and relax [syn: {living room}, {livingroom},
{sitting room}, {front room}, {parlor}]
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