Contextualizebeta

parlous

adj
/ˈpɑːləs/UK/ˈpɑɹləs/US

Etymology

From Middle English parles, parlous, perlous, [and other forms], a contraction of perilous (“dangerous; dreadful, terrible; morally corrupt, sinful, wicked; inauspicious, unlucky”) (and thus a doublet of perilous), from Old French perilleus, perillos, perillous, perilluse, perilleuse, perilleux (“very dangerous, perilous”) (modern French périlleux), from Latin perīculōsus (“dangerous, hazardous, perilous”), from perīculum (“danger, hazard, peril, risk”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through, carry forth, try”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, prone to’ forming adjectives).

  1. derived from *per-✻ — “to go through, carry forth, try”
  2. derived from perīculōsus — “dangerous, hazardous, perilous”
  3. derived from perilleus
  4. inherited from parles

Definitions

  1. Attended with peril

    Attended with peril; dangerous, risky.

    • The situation became parlous when the weather made resupply impossible.
    • [B]ables and comedies are parlous fellowes to decipher, and diſcourage men (that is the point) with their wittie flowtes and learned jerkes, enough to laſh any man out of countenance.

  2. Appalling, dire, terrible.

    • in a parlous state
    • All whiche offences and mysdemenors abovesaid have bene commytted to the grete hurte and undoyng of your orator, and the right evill and parlous example, [etc.]; […]
    • The preſent panges and parlous thoughts, / That pearceth troubled minds: / Is knowne to none but ſuch I ſay, / That lacke of freedome finds.

  3. Dangerously clever or cunning

    Dangerously clever or cunning; also, remarkably good or unusual.

    • A parlous Boy: go too, you are too ſhrew'd.
    • [O]h their parlous fellows, they will ſearch more with their wits than a Cunſtable with all his officers.
    • This Midas knew: and durſt communicate / To none but to his wife his ears of ſtate: / One muſt be truſted, and he thought her fit, / As paſſing prudent, and a parlous wit.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Extremely, very.

The neighborhood

Derived

parlously, parlousness

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for parlous. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA