Absalom (name)

Absalom (Hebrew: אַבְשָלוֹם, Modern: Avshalom, Tiberian: ʼAḇšālôm, "father of peace"; Biblical Greek: Αβεσσαλωμ) is a masculine first name from the Old Testament, where Absalom is a son of King David.

Absalom
Pronunciation/ˈæbsələm/ AB-sə-ləm
Gendermasculine
Language(s)Hebrew
Origin
Meaning"father of peace"
Other names
See alsoAxel

The variant Hebrew: אֲבּישָׁלוֹם, Modern: Avishalom, Tiberian: ʼĂḇîyšālôm, "my father is peace" is used as the name of the father-in-law of Rehoboam in 1 Kings (15:2,10), who in 2 Chronicles 11:20,21 is referred to by the shorter form Avshalom. The modern Scandinavian first name, Axel has developed (via Axelen) from Absalon, a 12th-century Danish archbishop and statesman. The variant Absolon is a German surname.

The name was also used in medieval England (variants Absolon, Apsolon, Abselon). As in the biblical story, as Absalom was pursuing his father, King David, in the forest of Ephraim and has his long hair caught in a tree, the name appears to have been a nickname for a man with long or thick hair, as suggested by a passage in the Canterbury Tales,

Now was ther of that Chirche a parish clerk, The which that was ycleped Absolon ... Curl was his heer and as the gold it shoon.

"The Miller's Tale"

This use as a nickname is possibly also the origin of Absalom as an English surname. The name Absalom continued to be used in English Protestantism in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The Hebrew name was used among Palestinian Jews in the 19th to early 20th century and remains current in Israel; it is mostly anglicized as Avshalom, reflecting Modern Hebrew pronunciation.

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