place mentioned in Gen. xiv:18, from Hebrew Shalem, usually said to be another word for Jerusalem and to mean "peace" (compare Hebrew shalom, Arabic salaam). Common as a Baptist and Methodist meetinghouse name, so much so that by mid-19c. it (along with Bethel and Ebenezer) had come to be used in Britain generically to mean "non-conformist chapel."[Salem etymology, Salem origin, 英语词源]