parlour

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
parlour /ˈpɑːlə(r)/ (US parlor)

▶noun

• 1 dated a sitting room in a private house.

• 2 a room in a public building, hotel, monastery, etc. for receiving guests or private conversation.

• 3 a shop or business providing specified goods or services: an ice-cream parlour.

• 4 a room or building equipped for milking cows.

▶adjective derogatory denoting a person who professes but does not actively support a particular political view: a parlour socialist.

– origin ME: from Anglo-Norman Fr. parlur ‘place for speaking’, from L. parlare ‘speak’.