palaver

Originally nautical slang, from Portuguese palavra (“word”), from Late Latin parabola (“parable, speech”). The term's use (especially in Africa) mimics the evolution of the word moot. As such, for sense development, see moot. Doublet of parable, parole, and parabola.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pəˈlɑː.və(ɹ)/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːvə(ɹ)

palaver (countable and uncountable, plural palavers)

1. (Africa) A village council meeting.
   • 1799, Mungo Park, Travels in the Interior of Africa‎:

     Here we remained four days, on account of a palaver which was held on the following occasion.

2. (North America, archaic British) Talk, especially unnecessary talk; chatter. [from 18th c.]
   • 1847, Emily Brontë, chapter III, in Wuthering Heights‎:

     Frances pulled his hair heartily, and then went and seated herself on her husband’s knee, and there they were, like two babies, kissing and talking nonsense by the hour—foolish palaver that we should be ashamed of.

   • 1886, Henry James, The Princess Casamassima, London: Macmillan and Co.:

     These remarks were received with a differing demonstration: some of the company declaring that if the Dutchman cared to come round and smoke a pipe they would be glad to see him—perhaps he'd show where the thumbscrews had been put on; others being strongly of the opinion that they didn't want any more advice—they had already had advice enough to turn a donkey's stomach. What they wanted was to put forth their might without any more palaver; to do something, or for some one; to go out somewhere and smash something, on the spot—why not?—that very night.

   • 1899, Stephen Crane, Active Service:

     Knowing full well the right time and the wrong time for a palaver of regret and disavowal, this battalion struggled in the desperation of despair.

   • 1979, V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River:

     Some of the palavers could take half a day.

3. (British) Mentally-draining activity, either physical or fuss.

   What a palaver!

   • 1985, Justin Richards, Option Lock, page 229:

     Not for the first time, he reflected that it was not so much the speeches that strained the nerves as the palaver that went with them.

   • 1988, Lord Grimond, House of Lords vol 492 col 695 :

     What's the good of going through all this palaver of giving very small sums to very obscure charities?

   • 2021 February 22, “Life slows down’: the islander who swapped Shetland for living off-grid in a Norway forest”, in Shetland News:

     We fill up the bathtub for a proper bath maybe once a month because it is such a palaver. We have a 150 litre pot and a 60 litre pot that we have to fill up and boil on the wood stove which takes hours.

4. A meeting at which there is much talk; a debate; a moot.
   • 1851, Thomas Carlyle, The Life of John Sterling, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

     this country and epoch of parliaments and eloquent palavers

5. (informal) Disagreement.

   I have no palaver with him.

6. Talk intended to deceive. [from 19th c.]

• (unnecessary talk): hot air, janglery; See also Thesaurus:chatter
• (fuss): ado, bother; See also Thesaurus:commotion

• → Danish: palaver
• → Finnish: palaveri
• → German: Palaver
• → Hungarian: paláver
• → Swedish: palaver

palaver (third-person singular simple present palavers, present participle palavering, simple past and past participle palavered)

1. (intransitive) To discuss with much talk.

   Synonyms: jabber, rabbit, yak; see also Thesaurus:prattle

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick‎, chapter 21:

     “Come, come, Captain Bildad; stop palavering,—away!” and with that, Peleg hurried him over the side, and both dropt into the boat.

   • 1860 April, Atlantic Monthly, volume 5, number 30:

     “That,” he rejoined, “is a way we Americans have. We cannot stop to palaver. What would become of our manifest destiny?”

2. (transitive) To flatter.
   • 1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash‎:

     Dodd never spoke to his officers like a ruffian, nor yet palavered them.

• James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Palaver”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volumes VII (O–P), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 390, column 1.

Borrowed from English palaver.

• IPA^(key): /palavɘr/, [pʰaˈlɒwˀɐ], [pʰaˈlæˀwɐ]

palaver c (singular definite palaveren, plural indefinite palavere)

1. palaver