parloir

Forms

parloir m (plural parloirs)^[1] Old French parleor and parleür;^[2][3][4] parloir is found from the 13th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French parler + -oir.^[3][1][2] The TLFi compares Medieval Latin parlatorium (“parlour”), recorded at Tours between 1032 and 1064.^[3] The verb is from Ecclesiastical Latin parabolō, from parabola.^[5]

Compare Walloon paloir, Occitan parlador and Italian parlatorio.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is from 1155, as parlëur, in Wace's Brut, for the room where monks may talk with visitors;^[3] the text says “Parla à lui el parleor” (“he spoke with him in the parlour”).^[6] The GLLF, the Grand Robert and the DHLF date an earlier parleor to the Roman d'Eneas (about 1130), for a room where people met to talk.^[7][4][2]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant any place where people gathered to talk and debate.^[3][2] In Paris the parloir aux bourgeois (about 1268, Étienne Boileau) was the meeting place of the city's municipal body.^[2][7][3]

Its narrower sense, the room in a convent where visitors may speak with those who live there, is as old as the word,^[2] and it was extended to schools in 1835, when the Académie records it, and to prisons.^[3][2] In some regions it is still a sitting room in a private house,^[8] and in prison language a parloir is also the visit itself.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1130 – Parleor appears in the Roman d'Eneas.^[7][2]
• 1155 – Wace uses parlëur for a monastery's parlour.^[3]
• c. 1250 – The form parloirs is found in the Cistercian rule.^[3]
• c. 1268 – Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers names the parloir aux bourgeois of Paris.^[7][2]
• 1835 – The Académie records it for the visiting room of a school.^[3][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A visiting room in a boarding school, convent, hospital or prison, where visitors may talk with the inmates.^[8][9][10]
2. A visit in that room between a prisoner and those who come to see him.^[8]
3. (regional) A parlour, a sitting room in a private house.^[8]
4. (historical) Parloir aux bourgeois: the seat of the municipal body of Paris.^[3][7]

Related words

• parler
• parole
• Medieval Latin parlatorium

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)