Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the French language.

1754		Foote Knights in Works (1799) I 76: In comes a French fellow [...] with his muff and parlevous.
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Lingo [...] the parlezvous lingo, the French language.
1835		D. Crockett Col. Crockett’s Tour to North and Down East 146: ‘Livin gingers! what d’ye suppose, colonel, they call me in Orleans?’ – ‘I dare say, some hard name.’ ‘Only think of the parly vous.’.
1849		Thackeray Pendennis I 181: I shall probably go abroad and improve my mind with foreign travel. Yes, parly-voo’s the ticket.
1863		G.A. Sala Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous 200: He [...] musters up his best parleyvoo.
1879		‘’Arry at the Gaiety’ in Punch 5 July 309/1: Though my parleyvoo not being puffect, no doubt there wos some things I lost.
1888		‘’Arry on Competitive Examination’ in Punch 1 Dec. 253/2: Mugged a lot about Parley Voo, history, and grammar.
1899		R. Whiteing No. 5 John Street 149: I’ll show you somethin’ better than all that parley-voo.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 530: O go on! Give us some parleyvoo.
1931		B. Lubbock Bully Hayes 72: I’m blessed if they don’t all jabber in the parley-vous language.
1949		(con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 179: ‘Welcome to de land of polly-voo,’ says Valero.
1983		J. Mortimer Rumpole and the Golden Thread 105: I never had the ‘parlez-vous’ for the Foreign Office.

2. (also parly) a French person; occas. thing; cit 1919 refers to the country.

1755		D. Mallet Masque of Britannia Prologue: What! shall these Parly-vous make such a racket, And I not lend a hand, to lace their jacket?
c.1801		‘All the World at Paris’ in Holloway & Black (1979) II 243: Jockies, Jews and parlezvous.
1815		Sporting Mag. XLV 164: Jockies, Jews, and Parlezvous, Courtezans and Quakers.
1821–5		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 227: I was a prisoner among the parleyvoos a good long while.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 261: [note] A Frenchman to have the impudence to think that he could lick an Englishman! none of your parleys wooes for me!
1835		D. Crockett Col. Crockett’s Tour to North and Down East 146: Well, it wasn’t long before Sam peeled the bark off of a parly’s knowledge-box.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 35: Many of the French importations [...] attract hither many of the French cruizers stationed on the coast of St. James, Regent-street. [...] Though the swell snob, who is always up to his fork in leather, has measured most of these ‘polley wooes,’ as he classically terms them, he says you can hardly tell the difference, in the dark, between the French kid and the good English calf.
1873		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Little Mr. Bouncer 26: I’ll do my possibles, as the Parley-voos say.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 110: ‘She’ll swing high for a mistress for some o’ them “parley vous” down there in New Orleans!’ said another.
1890		B.L. Farjeon Mystery of M. Felix I 9: ‘You said might be a parleyvoo. [...] And you keep on saying Mr. Felix.’ ‘Well?’ ‘Shouldn’t it be Monseer?’.
1898		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 15 Nov. 2/8: Ho! Rooshian Bear an’ Parley Voo, Saur Kraut an’ all you furrin crew.
1906		Gadfly (Adelaide) 25 Apr. 6/1: You’d hardly name ’er French – / Not this ’ere wench. / She weren’t no Parleyvoo. / I say that Sue she weren’t no Parleyvoo.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Sept. 43/1: ‘Wherever you find the Parlyvoo you find a sickenin’ lot of reg’lation, an’ red-tape, an’ Jack-in-office, an’ askin’ of questions, an’ signin’ of papers, an’ all that rigmarole.’.
1919		letter in Bourbon News (Paris, KY) 13 May 7/3: We are now sailing over a rough, deep blue sea to ‘Parlezvou’ and that’s France.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 129: Danny coaching us in the Frog lingo [...] so we could gab with the parlay-voo’s when we landed in good old Paree.
1981		(con. c.1918) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 57: Towards the end of the war, in 1918, we were singing songs that came over from the trenches: ‘Mademoiselle from Armentieres, Parley Voo’.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 500: Mister Parlay Vous is he? Was he? Never trust a fairy name changer.

3. incomprehensible language.

c.1905		J. Furphy Buln-Buln and the Brolga (1948) 🌐 Then comes a bloke, dolled up like’s if he’d come out of a ban’-box, an’ he sings some parley voo to the woman.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 310: The French was nearly all fucking parlayvoo to me. But I got the gist.

4. (US) discussion, rumour, chatter.

1919

D. Runyon in Durham Morn. Herald (NC) 3 July 10/1: Willard is ready, brother. Still wearing both of those legs that have caused so much parlaay-voo.