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To me, palaver means gift of the gab, long-windedness, chinwagging, jibberish and signifies a gasbag or a muckraker. It is a lovely word I recall an Indian lady using often. But then the Indians have a knack of using words we no longer use, more's the pity. For me it means more of a mess being made of something mundane. Like Blair making a mountain out of a molehill. I don't think anybody really cares if he is catholic, protestant, muslim, buddhist or aetheist. I think this is his way of staying in the limelight when his light went out a long time ago. I find it surprising anybody should think that one's religion plays a role in one's job. Many go to a church without 'belonging' to its religion. It plays a part in our freedom to choose. And if we don't go to more than one place of worship, how can we decide which suits our lifestyle and our belief. It just took him longer than anybody else to make his decision!

Regular readers of the blog may have noted my interest (perhaps fascination is a better word) in people's hidden lives and the secret worlds in which they live them.

I have noted several instances of the use of the word palaver in this context. Given its origin I would strongly suspect it entered the English language by means of Polari (a word to which it may indeed be etymologically linked).

For those who have not come across it, Polari is the now practically extinct secret gay anti-language which originated in the homosexual underground of the London docks.

I was amused to see William's rendering of it as "beguiling speech" - its common meaning in Polari is "bu11sh1t"!

Portwyne, the word certainly appears in Polari (the secret gay language used in London and other metropolitan cities in the mid-20th century), but palaver has an older use in English than that.

Augustine

Although Polari was popularised and brought to the attention of the general public in the mid twentieth century it has a much older history (some of which I have investigated).

The etymology William cites points to an origin in maritime trade (pun intended) and the dock communities of the major ports would seem an obvious vehicle for transmission. I am, however, merely making an assumption - my main interest was in its alternative meaning.