A palaver is a shamozzle. A shamozzle can be a kerfuffle. A kerfuffle is quite a faff. A faff tends to be a dog’s breakfast. I trust that clears things up.
I’m glad we could confabulate on this
As an American, I have heard this word since I was a kid. From context I assumed it was a negotiation with natives. Like a pow wow in the informal sense.
Yes, I know that word because of its usage in Les Miserables:
What a palaver
What an absolute treat
To watch a cat and it’s father
Pick a bone in the street
I rarely encounter it in crosswords. But it comes up in real life, both written and oral, reasonably often. I almost certainly encountered it as a teen.
i checked a bunch of online dictionaries and they say that it’s not exclusively British or American.
That’s the cause of the stereotypical French-accented English sentence ending, no?
Yeah I use it pretty frequently but I’m a Brit in the US for 20+ years.
I wouldn’t be able to say for sure it was a Britishism, but if I had to guess I’d say it was.
I knew the word from old Westerns (both in books and movies) before Stephen King brought it to more people’s attention.
Have gun will travel, reads the card of a man
A knight without armor in a savage land
His fast gun hire, heeds the calling wind
A soldier of fortune, is a man called — Palaver…
Too right! If that doesn’t suss it out I don’t know what will!
[In NZ, I associate it with people of my parent’s generation or older, where it was usually “What a palaver” or “Working himself into a palaver”]
Yeah.
I’ve read it, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anybody say it. And I also took it to mean a conversation, usually but not necessarily of the negotiating sort. Not, however, specifically of the boring, whining, or overlengthly sort; probably rather the reverse; though I don’t think I ever researched the meaning, but just guessed at if from context.
– I got kind of lost in the OP and am not quite sure whether they meant they actually wanted to hear from people who haven’t heard of the word, instead of from those of us who do. If so, I apologize, but refer you to the thread title.
Oh, thank you! That’s a great word! And I’ve been basking in it some the last couple of days –
And that reminds me of hullabaloo which has a similar definition. Neat.
I knew what it means immediately. Usually accompanied by “what a lot of.” It may be decades since I heard it used in conversation.
Yes, I know the word.
I came to say the exact same thing, word for word. Right down to the “Except for the menopause part.”
Sometimes I wonder if we Dopers are developing a hive mind. 
I know it from a memorable line in “The Dead” by James Joyce, said with great bitterness by Lily, the caretaker’s daughter: “The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you.”
Yes. South African, and we use it here too, mostly in the “What a palaver!” usage.
I also associate it with westerns. But as more more of a slow, negotiating talk, possibly while sharing chewing tobacco.
And, Bob’s your uncle.