I love that line! Thanks for reminding me of it.
The word pops up in the “Shindig” episode of Firefly, also. I agree that it’s highly uncommon, though. As with others, I knew it from its use in old Westerns, so I was delighted to hear it in the Firefly episode.
It’s a quick and fleeting usage, so if you saw that show but didn’t already know the word, it’s possible it would have just slipped past you without sticking.
I don’t think I’ve ever used it myself, in any context, spoken or written. Might need to change that.
Or, if you wish to be posh, brouhaha.
(I’m sure I heard the “parley” meaning in the Westerns of my childhood - The Lone Ranger? - but in my more recent experience it’s used to mean a complicated/tiresome situation of some sort)
“Palava” (yeah, we don’t spell that well) is a reasonably common word in Zimbabwe, but I’ve not heard it in South Africa.
“What a palava” = “this thing is tough and complicated and involves many people whose rôles are unclear, and they are not telling us”. Pretty much any interation with government.
It’s also my mother’s generation slang, and she’s in her 70s.
Heard it from others and use it myself, both in Coloured and White groups, and I’m not anywhere near my 70s.
We definitely don’t spell it like it’s some sort of meringue dessert, though
I always took it to be a synonym for banter, chitchat, etc. Perhaps consequential talk, maybe idle, in either case something that delays or complicates action.
I’ve seen it used occasionally; exclusively in books not spoken. I had the vague idea from context that it meant something like “talk” or “conference”.
I’ve heard it, sure. He’s the First Speaker of the Second Foundation, right?
In my experience, that’s not how we use it in Brit Speak (where it’s ‘what a palaver’ - ie a troublesome or complicated situation). But I’ve learned from this thread that seems to be the ‘old’ US usage. I do use it.
Have heard of the word, wasn’t sure of the definition but guessed it right, never used it myself. I have read a lot of Stephen King, so that may be why I know it.
Pretty sure I first ran across it while reading “Time Enough for Love” by Robert Heinlein. Lazarus Long uses it when first speaking with Ira. That would place my introduction to late 80s to mid 90s.
I’m just happy that, instead of simply asking if folks knew this word that meant “to go on and on in a whining way,” you took fourteen paragraphs to ask the question, preemptively complaining about the responses you’d get.
I see what you did there, and well played.
Meanwhile, I’ve heard the word, but it’s in the category of “malarkey” for me: old-fashioned and folksy and not ever something I’d use.
Haha, good observation. Also nice username / post combo on the part of the OP.
I can recall hearing the word used one time and one time only. It was while watching that delightful cinematic achievement called “Shakes the Clown” (how did that film not sweep the Oscars?). There was a scene where one clown confronted another and said “let’s palaver”. Based on the context it was clear he meant ‘talk’ but for some reason I want to say I knew or at least had an inkling what the word meant before hearing it used there. Don’t ask me how.
It’s in Swedish too, same spelling and almost only used as a noun. M-W lists it as both noun and verb, BTW.
Fiddling around with nGram, I find that it peaked in the early 19th century and has been in steady decline since then in English. It’s a bit more common in British as compared to American and there’s a small uptick around 2012 for both. There’s also more than an uptick in German, starting around 1990 and lasting three years. Re-unification? Lot’s of political squabbling and bickering leading German journos to go looking in their thesauruses to vary the language?
Paging our resident Germans.
I hear, or rather I read it here and there. I don’t recall ever seeing or hearing it in a western though.
Baen Free Library has several writings titled “Prime Palaver” which is where I encounter the word the most, on those occasions when I avail myself of the stories on offer there.
“Palaver” and “reckon” (as in “I reckon”*) are words I associate with the old West, but still seem to be in vogue among Brits - some of them, anyway.
“I reckon me and Bub better have a palaver afore the shootin’ starts.”
Kinda sort, but not quite for me - it has a negative/useless sort of connotation to me where “hubub” is just action/chaos. I’m American. I think I’ve only ever heard in fiction. Not read it, I don’t think, as it took me second to translate the spelling into the word (heard it ending with “uh” sound, not “r”).
Familiar with it as a Britishism. Many years ago, the Pet Shop Boys mounted a touring gay music festival called “Wotapalava” (named as a parody of “Lollapalooza”), but I think I’d heard it in the Stephen King books as cited before.
I used to think the old Jamaican song “Oh Carolina” (later covered by Shaggy) had the lyric “Palav’/Jump an’ prance” but I just looked it up for the purposes of this answer and I was wrong.
The word ‘palaver’, pronounced non-rhotically as palava, is common in Ghanaian English. It has the meaning of nonsense or meaningless talk.
And palaver sauce, a stew of fried cassava leaf and palm oil, is delicious.