palaver — profuse and idle talk; chatter (this is the secondary meaning of “palaver” but it’s the one that concerns and is connected with the Spanish cognate)
palabrería — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning
A “palaver” can also mean a “conference” or discussion or a long parley between people of different cultures (which is where it first came into our language). In the sense of “conference,” the Spanish cognate would simply be “conferencia” and not “palabrería.”
As to idle talk or chatter, the basis of any talk is each individual word, and that’s where the word “palaver” comes from. We took it from Portuguese’s word for “word” which is palavra. Why that matters is because in Spanish the word for “word” is “palabra” — you can easily see how similar that is to the Portuguese word for “word” from which we created “palaver.”
However, in English, we didn’t use our variation of “palavra” to mean “word” as it does in Portuguese. Instead, we used it to refer to “a parley with natives” because that’s how the Portuguese sailors and traders with whom the English sailors and traders were dealing during the 18th century were using their own word for “word.”
Since Portuguese and Spanish both come from Latin, their two words for “word” naturally were already cognates. Our English word of “word” has come down to us from Old English, so there is no similarity between the words “word” and “palabra;” however, there is a similarity between “palaver” and “palabra/palavra” because WE took that word from Portuguese and made it our own.
The Spanish word of “palabrería” suggests an over usage of words or “palabras.” That’s what idle chitchat and chatter is — using a whole bunch of unnecessary words in an idle fashion.
In one episode (Season 8, episode 1) of M*A*S*H, Colonel Potter says, “All right, Captain, let’s can the palaver.” I tried finding a clip of just that part to share on here but couldn’t. Trust me, though, he says it. Colonel Potter is my second favorite character on that series, after Hawkeye of course. All the characters are great, though.
Since I couldn’t find the clip I wanted, I will leave you with a compilation of Potterisms instead. Maybe there’s one you can use if you ever want to stop some “palavering” that is happening around you. Ha ha. Enjoy the clip.
Potterisms to stop the palavering
Until next time. If you’d consider upgrading to “paid” subscriber, I’d really appreciate it, and then you’d also have access to the full archive of “Cognate Cognizance” as well as to all the podcasts I’ve made of it.
Tammy Marshall
Share this post