Friday, May 09, 2008

The Parlor


It seems as though the word “Parlor” has been rendered archaic. How often have you ever heard someone describing one of the rooms in their house as a parlor? In my entire life time I only knew of one family that addressed a room as a parlor.

My idea of a parlor is a room by the door where one waits or where one may be entertained as a short term visitor.

You will hear of a hair dressing shop these days, or you may hear the words Beauty Shop but rarely will you hear the words Beauty Parlor used anymore. Funeral Homes have replaced Funeral Parlors. It was probably the association with funerals that people stopped calling the rooms in their homes, parlors.

Massage parlors are associated with illegal activities so they are rarely referred to as such and haven’t been since the 70s. Ice cream parlors are in decline with the use of the term opting more for branding like; DQ, Baskins and Robbins. Ice cream parlor is more generic. Parlor game and parlor tricks seem to be a thing of the pastas well.

Tattoo parlor is still a used term. Dairy farmers still use the term “milking parlor”, which can give one an impression of Gary Larson cartoon just waiting to be drawn.

Since the word Parlor is soon to be forgotten, is there any wonder no one knows of the word “locutorium?”

13 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Meanwhile the parlor guitar is enjoying a renaissance. WTF?

6:46 AM  
Blogger Beth said...

I have never been fond of the whole concept of what a parlor is since reading (as a child) the poem by Mary Howitt:
"Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly...”

(And I had to look up the meaning of the word "locutorium.")

1:25 PM  
Blogger Jeff said...

You got me on the locutorium, but do you know what an aprium is? We got them in at work today. No fair looking it up in the dictionary!

2:06 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I recall being told as a child that it was called a funeral parlor because before there were funeral homes, deceased family members would be laid out in the parlor room.

With that in mind, I think I can do without a parlor in my house.

2:34 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

A parlor guitar? What is that, a uke?

Beth all your reading is ruining your life.

Jeff, you don't want to get me going on GMOs.

2:34 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

Bayou I wonder what they did in small houses that didn't have a parlor?

2:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I make people wait in the Mud Room.
Specially those with green muddy boots ;-)

6:43 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had an evil great aunt who had a parlor, we grubby children were forbidden from touching a toe anywhere near it. My grandmother used to take her eggs and milk from their farm twice a week and we kids had to wait in the driveway if it was nice or the back porch if it was raining. We would sneak around and lick her windows to made them all grubby then run away into the woods.

8:22 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

G, funny they call it a mud room when on farms it should be called a shit room.

CCF a window licker? Say it ain't so!

5:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And a smeary nose print leaver too!

BTW, I finally met the elusive M yesterday working at that good smelling place in Gladstone. Man they are stripped and the phone is still ringing off the hook. There was just a few tiny piles of U assemble it stuff and almost no tops or bottoms. John looked really worn out.

8:39 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

guy - we do call it the s**t room.
The kids still think it's called the mud room.

1:55 PM  
Blogger The Guy Who Writes This said...

CCF, John seems to be doing very well there. I guess it is friendlier there now. I always got on well with the previous owners, but I guess change is good.

G The kids probably call it that, too, they don't say it in front of you.

7:35 AM  
Blogger The Bent Branch said...

And if you want to see a real virtual Locutorium, there is one here:
http://www.e.millner.btinternet.co.uk/languages/LOCUTORIUM.html

Si cyberpressōrium tuum super internexum qvī suprā appāret premis,
qvadrātum vidēbis ubi "Screen Name" (Nōmen Cybernēticum) inscriptum est.
Dēlē "Screen Name", in locum qvōrum verbōrum
inscrībe deinceps in qvadrātō textuālī nōmen usōris tuum.

Deinde preme cyberpressōrium tuum super spatíolum qvod iuxtā est,
ubi verbum ánglicum "Log In" (Inscrībe hīc nōmen tuum ut intrēs) legitur.

Nec cryptographēma necesse est intrōdūcere nec inscriptiōnem ēlectrónicam.

In Locutōriō Virtuālī nostrō cum aliīs colloqviōrum participibus
vel microphōnō vel machinā phōtographicā tēlārī
vel símplice scriptiōne commūnicāre potes.

8:27 AM  

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