PARLOR
parlor, parlour
(noun) reception room in an inn or club where visitors can be received
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
parlor (plural parlors)
The living room of a house, or a room for entertaining guests; a room for talking; a sitting-room or drawing room
(archaic) The apartment in a monastery or nunnery where the residents are permitted to meet and converse with each other or with visitors from the outside.
(archaic) A comfortable room in a public house.
(chiefly, Southern US) A covered open-air patio.
A shop or other business selling goods specified by context.
A shed used for milking cattle.
Source: Wiktionary
Par"lor, n. Etym: [OE. parlour, parlur, F. parloir, LL. parlatorium.
See Parley.] [Written also parlour.]
Definition: 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 Edition