If you are invited to a stately home for dinner, you are first directed into the parlour.
There, through introductions and conversation, you mingle and become acquainted with your host and other guests.
The room is called a parlour after the French word “parler”, meaning “to talk.”
After the meal, you retire to the drawing room for liqueurs arid cigars.
The name “drawing room” is an abbreviation of “withdrawing room” and was originally for men only.
