Solomon
(ˈsɒləmən)
Also 6–7 Salomon.
[The name of the Jewish king Solomon (in older English usage Salomon), L. Solomon, Salomon, Gr. σολοµών, σαλοµών, σαλωµών, ad. Heb. Sh'lōmōh.]
One who resembles, or is comparable to, Solomon, esp. in respect of wisdom or justice; a profoundly wise person, a sage; also ironically, a wiseacre.
| 1554 Mayland in Hawes' Past. Pleas. *iij, The famous Prince and seconde Salomon, Kynge Henrye the Seuenth. 1557 Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 168 In sober wit a Salomon. 1624 Bedell Lett. v. 90 Let our Salomon [James I] be Iudge between them. 1656 Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. ii. lix. (1674) 212 Command, makes men seem wise Solomons..who..have no more Brains than a Goose. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. Lady's Answer to Knight 195 If you all were Solomons, And Wise and Great as he was once. 1773 H. Walpole Lett. (1857) VI. 42 These Solomons delight to sit to a maker of wax-work. 1829 Scott Anne of G. xxx, But the old Swiss is a Solomon compared with him. 1889 Science-Gossip XXV. 244 It must imply that there was once an exceptionally wise Paramœcium... The existence of such an infusorial Solomon is at least improbable. |
b. British Solomon, English Solomon, or Scotch Solomon, King James VI of Scotland and I of England.
| 1814 W. Wilson Hist. Dissent. Ch. IV. 123 About the year 1621, our English Solomon then sitting on the throne. c 1830 Coleridge in Lit. Rem. (1838) III. 48 In the slavering times of our Scotch Solomon. |