WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Par"lor
Part of Speech : n.
Etymology : [OE. parlour, parlur, F. parloir, LL. parlatorium. See Parley.] [Written also parlour.]
Definition : Defn: 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. Parior car. See Palace car, under Car.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913