A living room or sitting room in a house, especially a formal one for receiving guests. A business establishment providing a particular service or product.
From Old French 'parleoir' meaning 'a place for speaking,' derived from 'parler' (to speak). Originally referred to a room in convents where nuns could speak with visitors, later extended to formal reception rooms in homes.
The word 'parlor' reveals how our ancestors organized domestic space around conversation - it literally means 'speaking place.' The evolution from convent visiting rooms to ice cream parlors shows how commercial establishments adopted the language of hospitality and social gathering.
Historically associated with women's domestic social sphere and ornamentation (parlor as gendered domestic space); 'parlor games' reinforced women's confinement to specific social arenas. The word carries class and gender assumptions about where women's leisure occurred.
Neutral when describing commercial or architectural spaces. Be aware historical associations when discussing social practices.
["salon","sitting room","social space","gathering place"]
Women created intellectual and political salons (Madame de Staël, Gertrude Stein) that transcended the parlor's constraints; parlors were sites of both confinement and female-led cultural power.
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