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 swl, hall, properly " abiding-place," from the root seen in Gothic sa!jan, 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 .