# Solon = councilman **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 30, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517 "2025-07-30T16:58:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/1 "2025-07-30T16:58:06Z")
I was reading some newspaper articles from the 1950s and they always referred to the local council men as “solons”. I see that “lawmaker” is indeed a definition for solon but I don’t think I have ever seen it before. Guess it fell out of fashion. USA newspapers if it matters. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/2 "2025-07-30T17:01:21Z")
I’d not heard the word before; Google indicates that “solon” directly comes from [Solon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon), a statesman in Athens. Here in Chicago, members of the City Council are known as “aldermen” (and “alderwomen”), though, in recent years, local media have been using the shorter, non-gendered “alder”/”alders.” ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/3 "2025-07-30T17:47:45Z")
I’ve seen that usage in older books; I suspect it’s somewhat ironic. Here’s a recent headline using the word: [https://businessmirror.com.ph/2025/07/28/returning-solon-files-10-priority-bills-in-20th-congress/](https://businessmirror.com.ph/2025/07/28/returning-solon-files-10-priority-bills-in-20th-congress/) ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/4 "2025-07-30T18:12:10Z")
[Sacramento Solons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Solons) minor league baseball team was once a thing, of course appropriate for the city’s standing as the state Capitol. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/5 "2025-07-30T18:12:44Z")
Solon is a city in Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/6 "2025-07-30T18:23:19Z")
I’ve seen it used before, although it’s been quite a while. But almost always for Senators, not local council members. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/7 "2025-07-30T18:31:40Z")
Are these articles all from one particular newspaper? I have heard the term but didn’t think it was very common. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/8 "2025-07-30T18:34:15Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > I was reading some newspaper articles from the 1950s and they always referred to the local council men as “solons”. Did they all have the same byline; perhaps some wannabe poet overly fond of his thesaurus? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/9 "2025-07-30T18:39:34Z")
Going from newspaper archives, it appears to have been dropping in usage thru the 1970s, then took a precipitous drop of about 75% in the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/10 "2025-07-30T18:43:24Z")
It was a very common synonym for “legislator” when I was a kid, so 60s-70s. Many headlines about “Solons pass [whatever]”. I’ve certainly heard / read of it used to refer to federal or state legislators. I don’t think I’ve heard it used for city- or county-level officials. Then again I grew up in a city of then ~50K in a county of then maybe 2M. Calling e.g. Chicago Aldermen “solons” might make more sense; they each certainly represent more people than small-state federal congressional reps do. It’s been decades since I’ve seen the word in use. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/11 "2025-07-30T18:50:52Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Calling e.g. Chicago Aldermen “solons” might make more sense; they each certainly represent more people than small-state federal Reps do. Chicago has 50 alderpeople and a population of 2.7 million. 2.7 million divided by 50 is way less than the population of even the smallest State. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/12 "2025-07-30T18:55:55Z")
Wow. I had no idea. Thank you. Los Angeles County has 5 elected “supervisors” for a population of not quite 10M people. That’s the prototypical major metro-blob I’m used to. Los Angeles city has ~4M residents and 15 “councilmen”. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/13 "2025-07-30T19:21:27Z")
Back in the pre-Internet days, newspaper editors had to conserve space at all costs, especially in headlines. Consider: SOLON SENATOR ALDERMAN LAWMAKER LEGISLATOR COUNCILMAN REPRESENTATIVE This is also why we had FDR, Ike, JFK, LBJ, etc. instead of ROOSEVELT, EISENHOWER, KENNEDY, JOHNSON, etc. NIXON was short enough not to need abbreviation. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/14 "2025-07-30T20:33:40Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > NIXON was short enough not to need abbreviation. And yet he was abbreviated… ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/15 "2025-07-30T20:35:14Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Are these articles all from one particular newspaper? I have heard the term but didn’t think it was very common. Yeah, the Lorain Journal from Lorain, Ohio. The dates were from1943 not the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![xtenkfarpl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c2a13f/32.png) [@xtenkfarpl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xtenkfarpl)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/16 "2025-07-31T17:47:23Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > I see that “lawmaker” is indeed a definition for solon but I don’t think I have ever seen it before. I have never seen that term, other than in references to ancient Athens. Maybe it was a local usage? Certainly not known in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/17 "2025-07-31T18:01:57Z")
> [@SuntanLotion](#): > > Solon is a city in Ohio. Name-checked in “Moon Over Parma” (the first opening theme from _The Drew Carey Show_): > We’re goin’ bowlin’ > > So don’t lose her in Solon ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/18 "2025-07-31T18:12:17Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Back in the pre-Internet days, newspaper editors had to conserve space at all costs, especially in headlines. Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, the local newspaper in Green Bay often used “RUSS” in headlines, as shorthand for “Russian” or “Soviet,” probably for that exact reason. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/19 "2025-07-31T18:34:20Z")
We used to see the term constantly in the Pacific Daily News, a Gannet paper published on Guam, in the late 1980s. I haven’t seen it much before or since, but when I’m playing Scrabble or Boggle I am glad to have it in my verbal repertoire. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2025, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517/20 "2025-08-04T10:21:22Z")
> [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > Certainly not known in the UK Indeed. But then, newspaper headline writers have the even handier “MPs” to hand. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solon-councilman/1021517.md?page=2)