palaver
English translation: palaver
| 21:58 Jan 22, 2002 |
| English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO] / Etymology | ||||
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|  Selected response from: VBaby Local time: 09:19 | |||
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11 mins confidence: 
peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1palaver Explanation: Actually, palaver comes from the Portuguese palavra (a council of African chiefs) and isn't a French word to my knowledge. French native speaker -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2002-01-22 22:11:39 (GMT) -------------------------------------------------- See also: http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2000/08/23.ht... Reference: http://www.bartleby.com/81/12668.html Reference: http://www.whatapalaver.com/wapdef.html |
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11 mins confidence:
palaver Explanation: "Palaver" comes from the Spanish "palabra," or "word." Originally, it meant "talk" in the sense of blahblahblah, i.e., something you don't really understand, "I listened to his palaver," or "Quit your palavering." It took on another sense later -- to palaver, or to confer, meet for discussion, as in " . . . go to a palaver." |
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12 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1parabola - parable, speech Explanation: No, the word derives from the latin parabola, which means parable, speech. It means a long parley, usually between persons of different level of culture and sophistication. Conferences or discussions can be called palaver. In this case, it means idle talk, or a misleading or beguiling speech. In French, it is : palavre. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2002-01-22 22:26:20 (GMT) -------------------------------------------------- I must apaologize: I just wrote to Cecilia\'s comment, that \"negotiate\" could be the \"American-Indian\" interpretation. I meant of course the American interpretation of the Indian sense of negotiation. That is why I did not mention it. I do not think Sitting Bull and all the others would have called their negotiations with the American government \"palavers\". |
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38 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1des palabres Explanation: Directly from palavera. The meeting of chiefs is often referred to as "des palabres" (most generally if ever plural) |
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56 mins confidence:
portuguese "palavra", sailor's early 18th century slang - metathesis of Latin parabola Explanation: http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/p1etym.htm palaver - 1735, sailors' slang, from Port. palavra "word, speech, talk," traders' term for "negotiating with the natives" in W.Africa, metathesis of L.L. parabola "speech, discourse," from L. parabola "comparison." Meaning "idle talk" first recorded 1748. http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary Main Entry: 1pa·lav·er Pronunciation: p&-'la-v&r, -'lä- Function: noun Etymology: Portuguese palavra word, speech, from Late Latin parabola parable, speech Date: 1735 1 a : a long parley usually between persons of different cultures or levels of sophistication b : CONFERENCE, DISCUSSION 2 a : idle talk b : misleading or beguiling speech http://www.wordwizard.com/slangstreet/showslang.asp?Street=T... palaver < Pg palavra = word, speech, talk < LL parabola = parable |
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