parley

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English parlai,^[2][3][4] generally taken as borrowed from Old French parlee (“discussion, talk”),^[2][3][5][6] the feminine past participle of parler (“to speak”) used as a noun,^[3][5][4][6] from Vulgar Latin *paraulō,^[3][5] from Late Latin parabolō (“to speak in parables”),^[3][6][5] from parabola (“speech, discourse”),^[3][6][5] from Latin parabola (“comparison”),^[3][6] the source of parable.^[3][5] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English offer this only as "perhaps".^[7][8][9] The OED instead derives it, "apparently", from the Anglo-Norman and Middle French noun parler (“speech, conversation”),^[10] as Skeat did,^[11] and notes the Old French word as rare;^[10] Weekley also thought it might come directly from the verb.^[12] The modern verb is formed from the noun,^[10][6] which Barnhart thinks was probably influenced by parler.^[6] Klein and Johnson reversed this, deriving the noun from the verb.^[13][14] Middle English had parlen (“to speak, confer”), recorded about 1378 in a version of “Piers Plowman”, which Barnhart and Etymonline take as a direct borrowing of the Old French verb.^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Speech, conversation: c. 1490 in the manuscript of a religious lyric that the MED tentatively attributes to Lydgate and dates to before 1449, "From Cristys passyon the thefe be parlay axid grace".^[2][10] Barnhart likewise dates the noun to probably before 1449,^[6] and Etymonline to the mid-15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant talk in general.^[10][6] Its military sense, a meeting with an enemy under truce to arrange such things as an armistice or an exchange of prisoners, appeared about 1580,^[10][15][8] in Barnhart from 1581,^[6] with the phrases to beat or sound a parley for the drum or trumpet signal asking for one.^[10] The verb arrived in 1570 in two senses at once, discussing terms and simply speaking,^[10] though Etymonline dates the "discuss terms" sense to the 1560s, and Barnhart to 1600.^[3][6] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as oral treaty, talk, conference.^[14] The sense of speaking a language became humorous, and later examples imitate an English pronunciation of the French verb, as in parleyvoo.^[10][7] In Scottish and Irish English the noun has also been a truce in children's games, and the call for one, since 1723.^[10] In Scotland, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Lincolnshire the verb long kept the sense of talking or gossiping.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1490 – noun, speech, conversation, debate.^[10][2]
• 1570 – verb, to discuss terms, especially with an enemy.^[10]
• 1570 – verb, to speak or utter.^[10]
• 1576 – verb, to talk or converse.^[10]
• 1577 – noun, a public disputation at a university (rare, obsolete).^[10]
• c. 1580 – noun, a meeting between opposing sides, especially under truce.^[10][15] Barnhart has 1581.^[6]
• 1611 – verb, to grant a parley to; to address a person.^[10]
• 1723 – noun, a truce in children's games, in Scottish and Irish English.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A discussion between opposing sides, especially with an enemy under truce, to settle terms: The two commanders met for a parley at dawn.^[17][15][10]
2. (archaic) Speech, talk or debate.^[8][10]
3. (chiefly Scottish and Irish) A truce in children's games, or the place of truce.^[10]

Verb

1. To discuss terms, especially with an enemy; to confer: The rebels agreed to parley with the governor.^[17][15][10]
2. (chiefly humorous) To speak a foreign language: He can parley a little Spanish.^[17][15][10]
3. (archaic) To speak or converse.^[10][8]
4. (rare) To grant a parley to; to speak to or address.^[10][15][8]

Word family

• parleyer

Related words

• parable
• parlance
• parlor
• parliament
• parle
• parleyvoo

Usage notes

A Scots parley, a thin gingerbread cake, is recorded from 1825; it is shortened from parliament cake, with the spelling apparently influenced by this word.^[10][16]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins