1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Saloon

SALOON, a large room for the reception of guests in a mansion. The French salon itself is formed from salle, Ger. Saal, hall, reception-room, represented in Old English by the cognate sæl, hall, properly “abiding-place,” from the root seen in Gothic saljan, to dwell, cf. Russ. selo, village. The word in its proper sense has now a somewhat archaistic flavour, being chiefly used of the 18th century, and it has come principally to be used (1) of the large rooms on passenger steamers; (2) on English railways of carriages for the accommodation of large parties not divided into compartments, and in the United States of the so-called “drawing-room cars”; and (3) of a bar or place for the sale of intoxicants.