Parlor and parlour both mean a sitting room for receiving guests, or a shop offering a particular service, such as an ice cream parlor or a beauty parlour. The only difference is spelling: parlor is American, parlour is British. Think of the -our ending as the British marker, just as in favourite.
The core difference
Parlor and parlour share every meaning; the spelling simply follows American versus British convention.
- parlor — American spelling, for a sitting room or service shop: They opened an ice cream parlor on Main Street.
- parlour — British spelling: She booked an appointment at the beauty parlour down the road.
How to tell them apart
Both words trace back to the Old French parler, meaning to speak, since a parlour was originally the room set aside for conversation — first in a monastery, where residents could talk with visitors, and later in an ordinary house as the room for receiving guests. Over time the word broadened to cover shops offering a particular service, from ice cream parlours to beauty parlours.
The confusion tends to surface in shop names and signage, where a business might use the American parlor for a deliberately old-fashioned, US-diner feel even in a British setting, or vice versa. As with other -or/-our pairs, pick the spelling that matches your audience and keep it consistent.
