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▪ I. palaver, n.|pəˈlɑːvə(r)|
Also 8 palaaver, palaber, 9 dial. fa-; also palava.
[ad. Pg. palavra word, speech, talk = Sp. palabra (in OP. paravoa, OSp. paraula, Diez), It. parola, F. parole:—L. parabola parable, in early med.L. ‘story, tale, word’. Palavra appears to have been used by Portuguese traders on the coast of Africa for a talk or colloquy with the natives (quot. 1735), to have been there picked up by English sailors (quot. 1771), and to have passed from nautical slang into colloquial use: cf. fetish.
Hotten's Slang Dict. has nantee palaver = ‘cease talking’, app. corr. of Pg. não tem palabra = ‘have or hold no speech’.]
1. A talk, parley, conference, discussion: chiefly applied to conferences, with much talk, between African or other tribespeople, and traders or travellers. Also fig.
1735J. Atkins Voy. Guinea 103 He found it as the Fetish-Man had said, and a Palaaver being called, Peter recovered two Ounces of Gold Damage. 1771Goldsm. Prol. to Cradock's Zobeide 28 (Spoken in the character of a sailor) No doubt they're all barbarians..I'll try to make palaver with them though. 1824Scott St. Ronan's vi, Next morning a solemn palaver (as the natives of Madagascar call their national convention) was held. 1835Marryat Jac. Faithf. xxix, Now take the other sofa, and let us have a long palaver, as the Indians say. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVI. 345 Like the word palaver, which Portuguese discoverers lent to the dusky natives of Western Africa. 1897M. Kingsley W. Africa 252 ‘How long does a palaver usually take to talk round here?’ I ask. ‘The last one I talked’, says Pagan, ‘took three weeks’. 1951Dylan Thomas in World Rev. Oct. 66 In his house on stilts high among beaks And palavers of birds.
2. a. Applied contemptuously to (what is considered) unnecessary, profuse, or idle talk; ‘jaw’.
1748Smollett Rod. Rand. (1812) I. 265 Damme, said the outlaw, none of your palaver. 1764Foote Mayor of G. i. Wks. 1799 I. 173 Let's have none of your palaver here. c1817Hogg Tales & Sk. V. 272 It was probably as well that I did not make too great a palaver. 1839Carlyle Chartism ix. 170 One's right..to send one's ‘twenty-thousandth part of a master of tongue-fence to National Palaver’. 1885R. Garnett De Quincey's Confess. Introd. 16 [De Quincey's] besetting sin is palaver—not however imbecile garrulity, but..the..expatiation of the princess whose lips dropped diamonds.
b. Talk intended to cajole, flatter, or wheedle.
1744A. Hamilton Itinerarium (1948) 160 The pedlar..sold some dear bargains to Mrs. Williams, and while he smoothed her up with palaber, the Bostoner amused her with religious cant. 1809Malkin Gil. Blas ix. ii. (Rtldg.) ⁋5 What is the meaning of all this palaver? 1837Howitt Rur. Life iii. i. (1862) 195 The peculiar style of palaver..the unique flattery..with which the gipsy accosts you. 1887S. Chesh. Gloss., Falahver, unctuous politeness, exaggerated civility expressed in words. ‘Hey'd sich a lot o' falahver with him’.
†c. In West Africa: a dispute or contest. Obs.
c1740F. Moore Trav. Inland Afr. (ed. 2) 221 They..call a Dispute a Palaver. 1744W. Smith New Voy. to Guinea 32 The English..once had a Settlement upon Charles Island, but having a Pallaver with the Natives they..waded over from the Main; by which Surprize they got Possession, and beat the English off that Island. 1789Rep. Lords Comm. Council: Evidence i. 5 in Parl. Papers 1731–1800 (Brit. Libr.) LXXXIV, If any Dispute or Palavers arose between Two or more Persons, they called a Council of the head Men, where the Persons were tried.
d. Business, concern. slang and African colloq.
1899C. J. C. Hyne Further Adventures Capt. Kettle 21 It's not your palaver..or mine. 1953Eng. Stud. XXXIV. 286 [West Africa] That's your palaver.
e. Jargon. ? U.S. (rare).
1909‘Mark Twain’ Is Shakes. Dead? vii. 74, I have been a quartz miner..and know all the palaver of that business.
f. In Africa: trouble.
1953P. Christophersen in Eng. Stud. XXXIV. 286 Palaver..is now part of Standard English in the sense of ‘talk’ or ‘parley’. But in West Africa this meaning is obsolete. In Pidgin and very largely in Coast English the word has come to mean ‘business’ or ‘trouble’ (e.g...‘That has caused a lot of palaver’ and ‘He had some tummy palaver last week’). 1954[see D.O. s.v. D III. 3]. 1970Drum (E. Afr. ed.) Feb. 39/2, I am a boy of 21 and I am still unemployed. I want a girl friend, someone to pet me. But I feel I should get a job before getting involved with woman palava.
3. attrib. and Comb., as palaver-court, palaver-house, palaver-man, palaver-room.
1735J. Atkins Voy. Guinea 53 So much as he can prove..at the Palaaver-Court, to have been defrauded of. Ibid. 63 Every Town hereabouts had a Palaaver-Room. Ibid. 74 The Palaaver-Man [demands] 10s. 1803T. Winterbottom Sierra Leone I. v. 85 The Africans..hold their meetings in the búrree, or palaver house. 1861P. B. Du Chaillu Equat. Afr. vi. 50 The chief's house and the palaver-house are larger than the others.
Add: Senses 2 d–f in Dict. become 2 e–g. [2.] d. A tiresome or lengthy business (esp. one which seems unnecessarily so), a ‘rigmarole’, a fuss; also, commotion, trouble. colloq.
1892J. Lumsden Sheep-Head 199 Both he and the little boy perished. Much fuss and palaver at the time were made about it in the public prints. 1920D. H. Lawrence Women in Love xii. 149 She hated the palaver Hermione made... She wanted anything but this fuss and business. 1947H. W. Pryde First Bk. McFlannels v. 50 Inside ma collar's the only place fur the thing [sc. a table napkin]. Ach, it's nothin' but a palaver onywey. 1967P. Bailey At the Jerusalem iii. 154 What a palaver there was before the coach left! Chattering away, rushing around. 1979J. Grimond Memoirs iv. 67 We coached him in all the palaver of the court, the standing up and sitting down, the ‘Yes m'lud’ and ‘no, m'lud’. 1987D. Adams Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency viii. 53 He went through a palaver similar to his previous one with his coat and hat.
▪ II. palaver, v.|pəˈlɑːvə(r)|
Also 8 dial. fa-.
[f. prec. (There is no corresponding vb. in Pg. or Sp.).]
1. a. intr. To talk profusely or unnecessarily; to ‘jaw’, ‘jabber’; to talk plausibly or flatteringly. (In quot. 1877, to hold a colloquy, to parley.)
1733,1764[see palavering below]. 1778F. Burney Evelina xvi, And palaver in French gibberish? 1791–3in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1799) I. 372, I heard Mr. Thelwall palaver one day. 1840Barham Ingol. Leg., Spectre Tappington (1882) 342 [I] had no time to stop palavering with him any way. 1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile x. 285 The worthy man, having spent all day in Assouan, visiting, palavering, bargaining, was now going home.
b. trans. with what is spoken as obj.
1853C. Brontë Villette xiii, Telling her nursery tales and palavering the little language for her benefit.
c. To talk out of or into something; to talk (any one) over, by palaver.
1767Woman of Fashion II. 170, I won't be palaver'd out of my Prerogative. 1782E. N. Blower Geo. Bateman II. 115 They easily palavers themselves into ladies favours. 1798Wolcott (P. Pindar) Tales of Hoy Wks. 1812 IV. 418 No palavering me over with ‘my dear friend’.
2. To treat with palaver; to flatter, wheedle.
1785Grose Dict. V.T., Pallaver, to flatter. 1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 149 To write silly odes, and palaver the great. 1863Reade Hard Cash I. vii. 214 Dodd never spoke to his officers like a ruffian, nor yet palavered them.
3. intr. const. to: to ask (someone) for something, to beg from. slang. ? Obs.
1858A. Mayhew Paved with Gold iii. i. 255, I thought he was a ‘queer gill’ (suspicious) at first, and smoked us, from what he palavered to Phil when he gave him his ‘deux-wins’ (twopence). 1859Hotten Dict. Slang 71 ‘Palaver to the nibs for a shant of bivvy,’ ask the master for a quart of beer.
Hence paˈlavering vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1733Revolution Politicks ii. 53 Here's Bo-Peep.—Pious falavering.—A Protestant Mask under two Faces. 1764Foote Mayor of G. ii. Wks. 1799 I. 179 Have a..caution that [he]..does not cajole you; he is a damn'd palavering fellow. 1778F. Burney Evelina xx, A truce with all this palavering. 1882M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal II. v. 91, I could..sue to her as a palavering Irish beggar sues for alms. |