A: Solon was a particularly wise lawgiver and statesman in ancient Athens; he was born in approximately 630 B.C. and lived until about 560 B.C. He was one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, and he implemented a number of reforms in Athenian law, such as eliminating the requirement that a citizen had to be of aristocratic birth in order to participate in government. (He also replaced the harsh laws of Draco, whose name you might still recognize in the English word “draconian,” with a more humane code.) His name is so synonymous with wisdom that it has been used generically in English to refer to any wise statesman since at least 1625.

Contemporary American journalists, with whom the term is especially popular, have extended the meaning even further to include any member of a lawmaking body, wise or not. In fact, today the word is sometimes used ironically for a legislator who displays a marked lack of wisdom rather than the gift of it.

Q I’ve always thought “sleuth” an odd word. Can you tell me its origin? – N. H., Skokie, Ill.

A: A Modern English sleuth is a detective, but in Middle English the word “sleuth” meant “the track of an animal or person.” The word was a borrowing from Old Norse “sloth.” After the 15th century, “sleuth” was seldom used except in compounds like “sleuth-dog” and “sleuthhound.” These were terms for a dog trained to follow a track. “Sleuthhound” was used specifically in Scotland for a kind of bloodhound used to hunt game or to track down fugitives from justice. We find mention of the legal importance of the sleuthhound in John Bellenden’s English translation of Hector Boece’s Latin “History and Chronicles of Scotland” (1536): “He that denyis entres to the sleuthound…sal be haldin participant with the crime and thift committit.” (He that denies entrance to the sleuthhound…shall be considered a participant in the crime and theft committed.)

The sleuthhound, originally a Scottish animal, gained fame far beyond the bounds of its homeland; it became a symbol of the eager and thorough pursuit of an object. According to Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell in her “Life of Charlotte Bronte” (1857), “The West Riding men are sleuthhounds in pursuit of money.” In the 19th-century United States, the metaphoric “sleuthhound” acquired a more specific meaning and became an epithet for a detective. This new term was soon shortened to “sleuth.”

This column was prepared by the editors of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition.

Readers may send questions to Merriam-Webster’s Wordwatch, P.O. Box 281, 47 Federal St., Springfield, MA 01102.