▪ I. saloon
(səˈluːn)
Also 8 salloon.
[a. F. salon (= Sp. salon, Pg. salão), ad. It. salone, augm. of sala hall: see sale2.]
1. a. = salon 1 a. b. = salon 1 b. Now U.S.
| 1728 [see salon]. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) III. 352 What Mr. Lovelace saw of the house (which was the saloon and two parlours) was perfectly elegant. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) I. vii. xciii. 427 They were then lining the grand salloon with silesia marble. 1760 H. Walpole Let. to Montagu 19 July, Ditchley..is a good house, well furnished, has good portraits, a wretched saloon [etc.]. 1784 Cowper Task i. 414 Strange! there should be found, Who, self-imprison'd in their proud saloons, Renounce the odours of the open field. 1810 E. D. Clarke Trav. Russia (1839) 21/1 The coup d'œil upon entering the grand saloon is inconceivable... The company consisted of nearly two thousand persons. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 438 Saloons are frequently raised the whole height of the building. 1828 J. F. Cooper Notions of Amer. I. 261 A young American..is just as happy in the saloon, as she was a few years before in the nursery. 1841 Penny Cycl. XX. 365 Saloon signifies, in its stricter architectural meaning, a room.., not only the principal room as to spaciousness, but loftiness also... At present however..the name of saloon is indiscriminately or ostentatiously bestowed on any unusually large room. 1842 Literary Gaz. 3 Sept. 612/1 Neither was she received altogether in the saloon, as she was of too humble a grade to mix with gentry and nobility. 1860 Marsh Eng. Lang. xiii. 291 In all grades of society, from the wigwam to the saloon. Ibid. xx. 440 The aim of a numerous class of popular writers is..to make books..speak the dialect of the saloon. 1907 Connoisseur XIX. 139/2 [Eaton Hall] The saloon..forms part of the hall... Divided by pillars alone from the entrance hall, the two form one large room. |
2. = salon 2. Now
rare.
| 1810 F. Jeffrey in Edin. Rev. XV. 461 It is to this..that the French are indebted for the superiority of their polite assemblies. Their saloons are better filled than ours. 1820 Shelley Lett. Pr. Wks. 1880 IV. 163, I find saloons and compliments too great bores. 1838 Emerson Addr., Lit. Ethics Wks. (Bohn) II. 214 How mean to go blazing, a gaudy butterfly, in fashionable or political saloons. 1881 Stanley Chr. Institut. (1882) 297 Materials of conversation at the dinner tables of London or the saloons of Paris. |
3. A large apartment or hall,
esp. in a hotel or other place of public resort, adapted for assemblies, entertainments, exhibitions, etc.; also, rarely, any unusually large apartment.
| 1747 General Advertiser 12 May, Mr. Rose and others will play in the Great Room, and in the Salloon in the Gardens. 1761 Ann. Reg. 126 In digging near the Latin⁓gate, two subterraneous saloons have also been discovered, in which were found four tombs. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xxxvi, The great pump-room is a spacious saloon, ornamented with Corinthian pillars. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872) I. 11 The Restaurant des Echelles..has a handsomely furnished saloon. 1886 Guide Exhib. Galleries Brit. Mus. 40 In this saloon are two Table-cases containing tablets of baked and unbaked clay from Babylonia. |
4. a. A large cabin in a passenger-boat for the common use of passengers in general or for those paying first-class fares;
† the passenger cabin of an aeroplane. Also quasi-advb. in
to go (etc.) saloon.
| c 1835 in M. Johnson Amer. Advertising, 1800–1900 (1960), Fare to Bristol—In main Saloon, and cuddy state rooms, Thirty-Five Guineas; in fore and lower saloons, Thirty Guineas. 1842 Dickens in Forster Life (1872) I. 271 One man lost fourteen pounds at vingt-un in the saloon yesterday. 1882 W. D. Hay Brighter Britain! I. ii. 57 If you can compass the means, go saloon—the extra comfort on a long voyage is well worth the extra price. 1884 Whitaker's Almanack (Advt. section) 20 These large, highest classed and full-powered Steamships..are fitted up in the latest and most approved fashion to ensure the comfort of Passengers, having the Saloon on Upper Deck. 1888 W. S. Caine Round the World x. 147 The saloon accommodates just sixteen persons to table. 1892 [see steerage 5]. 1900 H. Lawson Over Sliprails 113, I should have gone over steerage with nothing..and come back saloon with a pile. 1921 Daily Mail Year Bk. 27/1 Eight passengers..in armchair seats in a draught-proof saloon. 1930 Daily Express 6 Oct. 2/3 R101 swept around in a wide circle, visible only by her red and green navigating lights and the glow of the illuminated saloons. |
b. In full
saloon car or
saloon carriage: A railway carriage without compartments, furnished more or less luxuriously as a drawing-room or for a specific purpose, as
dining saloon,
sleeping saloon. Also (
U.S.) ‘the main room of a compartment-car or a small subdivision of a sleeping-car’ (
Funk's Stand. Dict.).
| 1842 Illustr. London News 18 June 89/1 Previous to the departure from Paddington, the Royal Saloon, the fittings of which are upon a most elegant..scale, were tastefully improved by bouquets. 1850 C. Schreiber Jrnl. 17 June (1950) 243 We had a saloon carriage. 1855 D. K. Clark Railway Machinery 275/1 Saloon carriages may..be planned variously... The business public appear generally to prefer the ordinary partitioned carriage. 1859 First Impressions New World 214 There were four of these [state rooms], besides a general saloon in the middle; but the whole was greatly inferior to the elegance of Mr. Tyson's car on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. 1886 St. James Gaz. 16 Oct. 6/2 He stepped lightly from the saloon-car. 1886 Encycl. Brit. XX. 247/1 Saloon carriages are occasionally used, so called because two or more of the ordinary compartments are merged in one. 1891 Harper's Mag. LXXXII. 581/1 The car at the head of the New York and Chicago Limited was divided..; the two small apartments ‘amidships’, so to speak, were arranged, one as a bath room, and the other as a barber⁓shop; and then came the more spacious saloon reserved for the smokers. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 19 Sept. 6/2 In the rear of the express was..the saloon in which the distinguished travellers were making their journey... They travelled..to Aberdeen in an ordinary sleeping saloon. |
c. A type of motor car with a closed body for four or more passengers.
Cf. sedan 1 c.
| 1908 Motor Manual (ed. 11) iii. 92 Other forms of bodies fitted to more expensive cars include the brougham, landaulet, saloon, double phaeton, [etc.]. 1927 B. K. Seymour Three Wives i. x. 157 He..secured the services of a Buick saloon. 1935 Auden & Isherwood Dog beneath Skin 12 Brought in charabanc and saloon along arterial roads. 1955 Times 6 June 7/7 A chauffeur-driven saloon draws up with a single passenger in the back—a prim little boy reading a school book. 1971 Daily Tel. 13 Apr. 2/4 A new saloon with front-wheel drive and transversely-mounted engine..is announced today by Fiat. 1976 Botham & Donnelly Valentino vii. 48 The street, where a gleaming new four-door Ford saloon was parked. |
5. a. An apartment to which the public may resort for a specified purpose, as
billiard saloon,
boxing saloon,
dancing saloon,
shaving saloon, etc.
| 1851 [see ice-cream attrib.]. 1852 C. J. Talbot Meliora Ser. i. 166 In London..we went to places of entertainment, and low dancing saloons. 1874 Mahaffy Soc. Life Greece viii. 241 We hear of no hells, or low music halls, or low dancing saloons [at Athens]. |
b. = saloon theatre below.
| 1864 G. A. Sala Robson 14 The place was a ‘saloon’—that is to say, drinking and smoking went on during the performance, but the pieces put upon the stage were all of a high class. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 46/2 The principal ‘saloons’ were the ‘Effingham’ in the Whitechapel Road, the ‘Bower’ in the Lower Marsh, Lambeth, [etc.]. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VII. 130/1 ‘Saloon’ became the name for any place of popular entertainment; ‘variety’ was an evening of mixed plays; and ‘music hall’ meant a concert hall that featured a mixture of musical and comic entertainment. |
6. In the
U.S., a place where intoxicating liquors are sold and consumed; a drinking bar. Also, in British use, a refreshment bar in a theatre; a separate bar in a public house (as opposed to
public bar),
= saloon bar below.
| 1841 Southern Lit. Messenger VII. 764/1 After going into the saloon (grog-shop) to ‘freshen the nip’—..they led me into the upper tier of boxes. 1841 Dickens Let. 28 Dec. (1969) II. 454 This note is about the saloon... The refreshments are preposterously dear... There ought to be a boxkeeper to ring a bell or give some other notice of the commencement of the overture to the afterpiece. 1854 Harper's Mag. Apr. 586/2 As I re-entered the bar⁓room labeled ‘saloon’, of mine inn. 1884 N.Y. Herald 27 Oct. 6/3 [Two men] demanded drinks in the saloon of ―, Myrtle avenue, Brooklyn. 1888 W. S. Caine Round the World vii. 106 Here [at Rogers Pass, Canada] is a collection of wooden shanties, used as liquor⁓saloons, music and dancing-houses. 1892 J. Ralph in Harper's Mag. LXXXIV. 716/2 The fee for a permit to maintain a saloon or hotel bar in cities of more than 100,000 population is $1000. 1893 Leland Mem. I. 282 A rather first-class saloon, bar, and restaurant on Broadway. 1902 ‘N. Gubbins’ Dead Certainties 106 Exactly thirty days from the day upon which I first entered the accursed swing-doors of the Bull and Beehive, late one night, a stranger entered the ‘saloon’. 1946 Amer. Speech XXI. 277 The English saloon-keeper was the keeper of the ‘saloon’, or as it would now be termed ‘refreshment bar’, in a London theatre. 1949 Columbus (Ohio) Sunday Dispatch 16 Oct. c1/3 He returned to Westerville in 1887 and opened a saloon at a new location on State St. 1969 House & Storey Lett. Charles Dickens II. 454 Macready had gone to great lengths to civilize the saloon. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 28 Aug. 13/1 People have been tossed out of saloons in downtown Utica, N.Y., with more style. |
7. attrib. and
Comb.:
a. simple
attrib., as
saloon licence,
saloon passengers,
saloon steward, etc.;
b. special comb., as
saloon bar, a separate bar in a public house offering more comfort, services, etc. than the public bar;
saloon car,
carriage, (
a) see 4 b above; (
b)
= 4 c above;
saloon deck, a deck for the use of saloon passengers;
saloon-keeper U.S., one who keeps a drinking saloon; also, in British use, the keeper of a refreshment bar in a theatre;
saloon man U.S., one who frequents drinking saloons;
saloon pistol,
rifle, light firearms for firing at short range;
saloon smasher U.S. slang, one who practises or advocates the practice of the wrecking of drinking saloons as a protest against the liquor traffic; so also
saloon smashing;
saloon theatre: see
theatre n. 2.
| 1902 G. Hill in G. Sims Living London II. 292/3 The distinction between the ‘private’ bar and the ‘*saloon’ bar is subtle... The saloon bar is the ante-chamber of the billiard room. 1932 L. Golding Magnolia St. i. iii. 45 The Public Bar, nothing like so grand as the Saloon Bar, nothing like so cosy as the Private Bar. 1977 ‘J. Gash’ Judas Pair ii. 17 The saloon bar was crowded. |
| 1915 Motor Manual (ed. 18) xi. 135 Landaulets, cabriolets, and *saloon cars. 1931 D. L. Sayers Five Red Herrings xv. 167, I observed Mr. Gowan's saloon car standing before the door. 1974 Country Life 17 Oct. 1112/1 In post-war years we have had some very exciting saloon-car racing. |
| 1888 W. S. Caine Round the World i. 3 The *saloon-deck presents the usual aspect. Ladies are grouped about in pleasant corners in easy deck-chairs. |
| 1849 Theatrical Mirror 10 Sept. 21 The ‘Mirror’ is supplied at most moderate prices to the *Saloon Keepers, in order to enable them to sell it to advantage. 1873 ‘Mark Twain’ Gilded Age lix. 530 Leave the true source of our political power..in the hands of saloon-keepers. 1879 G. Campbell Black & White 242 The publicans, or saloon-keepers, as they are called in America. 1944 B. A. Botkin Treas. Amer. Folklore i. 131 He followed the construction of a new line on the Southern Pacific Railroad as camp saloon-keeper. 1977 Times 9 July 9/1 His grandfather was a poor tenant farmer..who became a saloon keeper. |
| 1892 J. Ralph in Harper's Mag. LXXXIV. 712/1 The *saloon licence system is another village development. |
| 1870 J. W. McClung Minnesota 213 Spring Valley, with 400 population..and no saloon. ‘*Saloon men cannot live in Spring Valley.’ 1915 J. London Star Rover ii. 9 You can weave the political pull of San Francisco saloon-men and ward heelers into a position of graft. |
| 1879 Froude in Fraser's Mag. Nov. 625 The *saloon passengers were taken next. |
| 1899 Kipling Stalky 65 Rabbit-shooting with *saloon-pistols. |
| 1881 Greener Gun 368 *Saloon rifles..are small, smooth-bore guns,..firing a bulleted breech-cap... Pistols..are also made on the same principle. In all saloon rifles and pistols the propellant is fulminating powder contained in a small copper case. |
| 1901 Westm. Gaz. 10 Dec. 9/2 The notorious *saloon smasher. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 11 July 5/7 ‘*Saloon-smashing’ methods of reform by wrecking with dynamite buildings in which liquor selling was carried on. |
▪ II. saloon obs. variant of
shalloon.