Of course there's such a thing as a parlor guitar--though from a linguist's or lexicographer's point of view, the sense of that term has shifted around, almost to the point where its usefulness has nearly vanished.
The guitars that were being described as "parlor guitars" when I first came across them at 1980s guitar shows were 1) smaller than the Martin 0, and 2) built between around 1890 and 1930. They were not, as far as I can tell, characterized as "parlor guitars" in builders's catalogues (Lyon & Healy/Washburn, Regal, Bacon & Day, Bay State, et al.). Instead, that descriptor was used by modern dealers and collectors to distinguish older, smaller guitars from (usually) later design formulas. Interestingly, small Martins (size 1 and 2) were not usually called "parlors" but whatever their official Martin model number was. It was the non-Martins of similar size and vintage that got labeled "parlors." And they were really just the standard-size instruments of their periods, retroactively rebranded.
I confess that I still sniff at the practice of calling anything smaller than a dreadnought or jumbo a "parlor" model. But then, I'm a former English teacher and thus used to being ignored when I'm not being scorned for being a linguistic-historical purist, grammar nazi, and general fussbudget.
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