Pronounced: MESS-wij, noun
Notes: I like the origin story for this word (it’s not pronounced as I would think)
Yesterday’s word
The word parlous means “full of danger or risk; hazardous”
First usage
Our word came into English in the 1300s
Background / Comments
If you think “the definition seems like the definition for perilous”, you are correct. In Middle English, it was an altered form of ‘perilous’. In the 1600s, our word fell out of favor, but in the 1900s, it started to be used again. As noted, our word was an altered form of ‘perilous’ which comes from the Anglo-French word perilleus, which traces back to the Latin word periculum (danger).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 