palaver

Advancedzipf 2.18

Pronunciation

/pəˈlɑːvə/(puh-LAH-vuh)

Part of speech

noun / verbinformal

Chinese

废话；大惊小怪；冗长的讨论

Definition

Prolonged and idle discussion; unnecessary fuss; to talk at length.

Word family

  • (no common derivatives)

Collocations

  • what a palaver
  • all this palaver
  • palaver about nothing
  • endless palaver

Examples

  1. 1.What a palaver just to get a simple form signed — I had to visit three different offices! (unnecessary fuss)
  2. 2.After hours of palaver, the committee still hadn't reached a decision. (lengthy, unproductive talk)

Synonyms

  • fuss/fʌs/— unnecessary commotion
  • rigmarole/ˈrɪɡmərəʊl/— lengthy procedure
  • commotion/kəˈməʊʃən/— noisy disturbance

Etymology

from Portuguese "palavra" = word, speech — from Latin "parabola" = comparison, parable — talk that goes on and on