Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large room, such as a drawing room, used for receiving and entertaining guests.
  • noun A periodic gathering of people of social or intellectual distinction.
  • noun A hall or gallery for the exhibition of works of art.
  • noun A commercial establishment offering a product or service related to fashion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Specifically, a periodical social gathering of men and women representative of the wit, fashion, literature, art, or politics of the time. The salon flourished principally in France during the eighteenth century.
  • noun An apartment for the reception of company; a saloon; hence, a fashionable gathering or assemblage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An apartment for the reception of company; hence, in the plural, fashionable parties; circles of fashionable society.
  • noun An apartment for the reception and exhibition of works of art; hence, an annual exhibition of paintings, sculptures, etc., held in Paris by the Society of French Artists; -- sometimes called the Old Salon. New Salon is a popular name for an annual exhibition of paintings, sculptures, etc., held in Paris at the Champs de Mars, by the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts (National Society of Fine Arts), a body of artists who, in 1890, seceded from the Société des Artistes Français (Society of French Artists).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a large room, especially one used to receive and entertain guests
  • noun a gathering of people for a social or intellectual meeting
  • noun an art gallery
  • noun a beauty salon or similar establishment

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a shop where hairdressers and beauticians work
  • noun elegant sitting room where guests are received
  • noun gallery where works of art can be displayed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Italian salone, augmentative of sala, hall, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French salon ("reception room"), from Middle French, from Italian salone ("large hall"), augmented form of Italian sala ("hall"), from Lombardic sala ("room, house, entrance hall"), from Proto-Germanic *salan (“dwelling, house, hall”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“human settlement, village, dwelling”). Cognate with Old High German sal ("room, house, entrance hall"), Old English sæl ("room, hall, castle"), Old Church Slavonic селó (seló, "courtyard, village"), Lithuanian sala ("village").

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Examples

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  • In the morning you come to the ladies salon

    To get all fitted out for The Paperback Throne

    But the people are living far away from the place

    Where you wanted to help, it's a bit of a waste

    And the puzzle will last till somebody will say

    "There's a lot to be done while your head is still young"

    If you put down your pen, leave your worries behind

    Then the moment will come, and the memory will shine.

    (Sleep the clock around, by Belle and Sebastian)

    November 12, 2008