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Origin and history of Simon

Simon

masc. proper name, from Latin, from Greek Symeon, from Hebrew Shim'on, literally "hearkening, hearing," from shama "he heard." In English Old Testaments usually printed as Simeon, but in the New Testament almost always as Simon. It also has been confused with the Greek masc. proper name Simōn, which is from simos "snub-nosed." The Simonians were an early Christian sect named for Simon Magus (see simony).

Alliterative Simple Simon "foolish person" is attested from 1730. The nursery rhyme about him is attested from 1841. Earlier he had been the subject of a popular chapbook, "Simple Simon's Misfortunes: Or His Wife Margery's Outrageous Cruelty."

Entries linking to Simon

Simeon

masc. proper name, Biblical second son of Jacob and Leah; also a tribe of Israel; see Simon. The Simeonites (1823) were followers of the Rev. Charles Simeon.

simony(n.)

c. 1200, simonie, "the sin of buying or selling sacred things," from Old French simonie "selling of church offices" (12c.) and directly from Late Latin simonia, from Simon Magus, the Samaritan magician who was rebuked by Peter when he sought to buy the power of conferring the Holy Spirit (Acts viii.18-20). Related: Simonient (adj.) "guilty of simony," late 14c.

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    exploitation
    Bad sense developed 1830s-50s, in part from influence of French socialist writings (especially Saint Simon), also perhaps...It follows from this science [conceived by Saint Simon] that the tendency of the human race is from a state of antagonism...
    utopian
    Simon, and Owen, "the pre-scientific and infantile stage" of modern, practical socialism....
    socialist
    " 1827, from French socialiste, or else a native formation based on it, in reference to the teachings of Comte de Saint-Simon...
    vicar
    The original Vicar of Bray (in figurative use from 1660s) seems to have been Simon Allen, who held the benefice from c. 1540...
    Peter
    stone, rock" (see petrous), a translation of Syriac kefa "stone" (Latinized as Cephas), the nickname Jesus gave to apostle Simon...
    leprechaun
    linguistic scholarship has recently found a different explanation and connected the word to Latin Lupercalia: New research by Simon...
    pizza
    ["Simon Stylites," in The Bergen Evening Record, May 15, 1931]...
    the
    definite article, late Old English þe, nominative masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun and adjective. After c.950, it replaced earlier se (masc.), seo (fem.), þæt (neuter), and probably represents se altered by the th- form which was used in all the masculine oblique cases
    celestial
    late 14c., "pertaining to the sky or the visible heavens; pertaining to the Christian or pagan heaven," from Old French celestial "celestial, heavenly, sky-blue," from Latin caelestis "heavenly, pertaining to the sky," from caelum "heaven, sky; abode of the gods; climate," which

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