Word of the Day for Thursday August 18, 2005 parley \PAR-lee\, noun: A conference or discussion, especially with an enemy, as with regard to a truce or other matters. The government recognized his knack for parleying with tribes, and it sent him all over the West. --Geoffrey O'Gara, [1]What You See in Clear Water Whether the Indians came out to parley or, seeing that the fort was about to fall, came out to surrender is unclear. --Willard Sterne Randall, [2]George Washington: A Life In case of Servia's non-compliance with the ultimatum the army will invade the kingdom without further parley. --"Austria Ready to Invade Servia, Sends Ultimatum," [3]New York Times, July 24, 1914 _________________________________________________________ Parley comes from Old French parlée, from parler, "to speak," from Medieval Latin parabolare, from Late Latin parabola, "a proverb, a parable, a similitude," from Greek parabole, "a comparison, a placing beside," from paraballein, "to throw beside, hence to compare," from para-, "beside" + ballein, "to throw." References 1. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679735828/ref=nosim/lexico 2. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/080505992X/ref=nosim/lexico 3. http://www.nytimes.com/ Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=parley