A parlour or parlor game is a group game played indoors using speech (from French Parler). They were often played in a

parlour A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...

. These games were extremely popular among the upper and middle classes in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

during the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

. The Victorian age is sometimes considered the "Golden Age" of the parlour game. During the 19th century, the upper and middle classes had more leisure time than people of previous generations. This led to the creation of a variety of parlour games to allow these gentlemen and ladies to amuse themselves at small parties. Boxed parlour games were very popular from around 1920 until into the 1960s, especially around Christmas. Parlour games competed for attention with the

mass media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit informati ...

, particularly

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

movies A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

. Though decreased in popularity, parlour games continue to be played. Some remain nearly identical to their Victorian ancestors; others have been transformed into

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a co ...

s such as

Balderdash ''Balderdash'' is a board game variant of a classic parlor game known as ''Fictionary'' or "The Dictionary Game". It was created by Laura Robinson and Paul Toyne of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The game was first released in 1984 under Canada Game ...

. Many parlour games involve

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...

or word-play. Others are more physical games, but not to the extent of a

sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

or exercise. Some also involve dramatic skill, such as in charades. Most do not require any equipment beyond what would be available in a typical parlour - ie the functioning mouths of the participants. Parlour games are usually competitive, but cumulative scores are not usually kept. The length and ending time of the game is typically not set; play continues until the players decide to end the game. Parlour games are also interchangeably used with carnival games such as, but not limited to, "ping pong toss", "dart throwing", "strong man", and "dunk water". These can be played either indoors or outdoors and is usually accompanied with a token prize (i.e. stuffed animal) upon winning.

Examples

1867 OliverTwist game Adams BromfieldSt Boston ad EverySaturday

Examples of parlour games include: * Aesop's Mission * Are you there, Moriarty? *

Carnelli Carnelli is a parlor game of subsequent text continuation. It was created by Jan Carnell, a member of the Metropolitan Washington chapter of Mensa. This game has been popular at Mensa gatherings for years, and has turned up at science fiction con ...

* Charades *

Consequences Consequence may refer to: * Logical consequence, also known as a ''consequence relation'', or ''entailment'' * In operant conditioning, a result of some behavior * Consequentialism, a theory in philosophy in which the morality of an act is determi ...

Fictionary Fictionary, also known as The Dictionary Game or simply Dictionary, is a word game in which players guess the definition of an obscure word. Each round consists of one player selecting and announcing a word from the dictionary, and other players co ...

Huckle buckle beanstalk Huckle may refer to: * Huckle (surname) * Mount Huckle, a mainly ice-covered mountain * Thomas Huckle Weller (born 1915), American virologist * Huckle Cat a children's fictional character from Richard Scarry Books. People with the surname ...

Hunt the thimble Hunt the thimble (also known as hide the thimble or hide the handkerchief in both the US and the UK) is a party game in which one person hides a thimble, or other small object, somewhere in the room, while all other players wait outside. (In some ...

I packed my bag I packed my bag is a memory game often played as a car game. In the traditional version of the game, one person says "I packed my bag and in it I put...", and names any object. The next person then says "I packed my bag and in it I put...", followe ...

I spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

Kim's Game Kim's Game is a game or exercise played by Boy Scouts,''Scouting Games'' by Sir Robert S. S. Baden-Powell, 1921. Chapter IVOnline version at US Scouting Serviceaccessed July, 2008. Girl Scouts and Girl Guides, the military, and other groups, in ...

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

* The Minister's Cat *

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon or Bacon's Law is a parlor game where players challenge each other to arbitrarily choose an actor and then connect them to another actor via a film that both actors have appeared in together, repeating this process to t ...

* Twenty questionsJones, Myfanwy (2010). ''Parlour Games for Modern Families'', unpaginated. Penguin UK. . * Wink murder

As a metaphor

By analogy, the phrase "parlour game" has been used to accuse political opponents of using deliberately nebulous or confusing language when describing their positions on issues.

References

{{Authority control Game terminology

Examples

As a metaphor

See also

References