The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Jerusalem \Je*ru"sa*lem\ (j[-e]*r[udd]"s[.a]*l[e^]m), n. [Gr.
   'Ieroysalh`m, fr. Heb. Y[e^]r[=u]sh[=a]laim.]
   The chief city of Palestine, intimately associated with the
   glory of the Jewish nation, and the life and death of Jesus
   Christ.
   [1913 Webster]

   Jerusalem artichoke [Perh. a corrupt. of It. girasole i.e.,
      sunflower, or turnsole. See Gyre, Solar.] (Bot.)
   (a) An American plant, a perennial species of sunflower
       (Helianthus tuberosus), whose tubers are sometimes used
       as food.
   (b) One of the tubers themselves.

   Jerusalem cherry (Bot.), the popular name of either of two
      species of Solanum (Solanum Pseudo-capsicum and
      Solanum capsicastrum), cultivated as ornamental house
      plants. They bear bright red berries of about the size of
      cherries.

   Jerusalem oak (Bot.), an aromatic goosefoot (Chenopodium
      Botrys), common about houses and along roadsides.

   Jerusalem sage (Bot.), a perennial herb of the Mint family
      (Phlomis tuberosa).

   Jerusalem thorn (Bot.), a spiny, leguminous tree
      (Parkinsonia aculeata), widely dispersed in warm
      countries, and used for hedges.

   The New Jerusalem, Heaven; the Celestial City.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

Jerusalem
    n 1: capital and largest city of the modern state of Israel
         (although its status as capital is disputed); it was
         captured from Jordan in 1967 in the Six Day War; a holy
         city for Jews and Christians and Muslims; was the capital
         of an ancient kingdom [syn: Jerusalem, capital of
         Israel]

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Jerusalem
   called also Salem, Ariel, Jebus, the "city of God," the "holy
   city;" by the modern Arabs el-Khuds, meaning "the holy;" once
   "the city of Judah" (2 Chr. 25:28). This name is in the original
   in the dual form, and means "possession of peace," or
   "foundation of peace." The dual form probably refers to the two
   mountains on which it was built, viz., Zion and Moriah; or, as
   some suppose, to the two parts of the city, the "upper" and the
   "lower city." Jerusalem is a "mountain city enthroned on a
   mountain fastness" (comp. Ps. 68:15, 16; 87:1; 125:2; 76:1, 2;
   122:3). It stands on the edge of one of the highest table-lands
   in Palestine, and is surrounded on the south-eastern, the
   southern, and the western sides by deep and precipitous ravines.

     It is first mentioned in Scripture under the name Salem (Gen.
   14:18; comp. Ps. 76:2). When first mentioned under the name
   Jerusalem, Adonizedek was its king (Josh. 10:1). It is
   afterwards named among the cities of Benjamin (Judg. 19:10; 1
   Chr. 11:4); but in the time of David it was divided between
   Benjamin and Judah. After the death of Joshua the city was taken
   and set on fire by the men of Judah (Judg. 1:1-8); but the
   Jebusites were not wholly driven out of it. The city is not
   again mentioned till we are told that David brought the head of
   Goliath thither (1 Sam. 17:54). David afterwards led his forces
   against the Jebusites still residing within its walls, and drove
   them out, fixing his own dwelling on Zion, which he called "the
   city of David" (2 Sam. 5:5-9; 1 Chr. 11:4-8). Here he built an
   altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite
   (2 Sam. 24:15-25), and thither he brought up the ark of the
   covenant and placed it in the new tabernacle which he had
   prepared for it. Jerusalem now became the capital of the
   kingdom.

     After the death of David, Solomon built the temple, a house
   for the name of the Lord, on Mount Moriah (B.C. 1010). He also
   greatly strengthened and adorned the city, and it became the
   great centre of all the civil and religious affairs of the
   nation (Deut. 12:5; comp. 12:14; 14:23; 16:11-16; Ps. 122).

     After the disruption of the kingdom on the accession to the
   throne of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, Jerusalem became the
   capital of the kingdom of the two tribes. It was subsequently
   often taken and retaken by the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and by
   the kings of Israel (2 Kings 14:13, 14; 18:15, 16; 23:33-35;
   24:14; 2 Chr. 12:9; 26:9; 27:3, 4; 29:3; 32:30; 33:11), till
   finally, for the abounding iniquities of the nation, after a
   siege of three years, it was taken and utterly destroyed, its
   walls razed to the ground, and its temple and palaces consumed
   by fire, by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon (2 Kings 25; 2
   Chr. 36; Jer. 39), B.C. 588. The desolation of the city and the
   land was completed by the retreat of the principal Jews into
   Egypt (Jer. 40-44), and by the final carrying captive into
   Babylon of all that still remained in the land (52:3), so that
   it was left without an inhabitant (B.C. 582). Compare the
   predictions, Deut. 28; Lev. 26:14-39.

     But the streets and walls of Jerusalem were again to be built,
   in troublous times (Dan. 9:16, 19, 25), after a captivity of
   seventy years. This restoration was begun B.C. 536, "in the
   first year of Cyrus" (Ezra 1:2, 3, 5-11). The Books of Ezra and
   Nehemiah contain the history of the re-building of the city and
   temple, and the restoration of the kingdom of the Jews,
   consisting of a portion of all the tribes. The kingdom thus
   constituted was for two centuries under the dominion of Persia,
   till B.C. 331; and thereafter, for about a century and a half,
   under the rulers of the Greek empire in Asia, till B.C. 167. For
   a century the Jews maintained their independence under native
   rulers, the Asmonean princes. At the close of this period they
   fell under the rule of Herod and of members of his family, but
   practically under Rome, till the time of the destruction of
   Jerusalem, A.D. 70. The city was then laid in ruins.

     The modern Jerusalem by-and-by began to be built over the
   immense beds of rubbish resulting from the overthrow of the
   ancient city; and whilst it occupies certainly the same site,
   there are no evidences that even the lines of its streets are
   now what they were in the ancient city. Till A.D. 131 the Jews
   who still lingered about Jerusalem quietly submitted to the
   Roman sway. But in that year the emperor (Hadrian), in order to
   hold them in subjection, rebuilt and fortified the city. The
   Jews, however, took possession of it, having risen under the
   leadership of one Bar-Chohaba (i.e., "the son of the star") in
   revolt against the Romans. Some four years afterwards (A.D.
   135), however, they were driven out of it with great slaughter,
   and the city was again destroyed; and over its ruins was built a
   Roman city called Aelia Capitolina, a name which it retained
   till it fell under the dominion of the Mohammedans, when it was
   called el-Khuds, i.e., "the holy."

     In A.D. 326 Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, made a
   pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the view of discovering the places
   mentioned in the life of our Lord. She caused a church to be
   built on what was then supposed to be the place of the nativity
   at Bethlehem. Constantine, animated by her example, searched for
   the holy sepulchre, and built over the supposed site a
   magnificent church, which was completed and dedicated A.D. 335.
   He relaxed the laws against the Jews till this time in force,
   and permitted them once a year to visit the city and wail over
   the desolation of "the holy and beautiful house."

     In A.D. 614 the Persians, after defeating the Roman forces of
   the emperor Heraclius, took Jerusalem by storm, and retained it
   till A.D. 637, when it was taken by the Arabians under the
   Khalif Omar. It remained in their possession till it passed, in
   A.D. 960, under the dominion of the Fatimite khalifs of Egypt,
   and in A.D. 1073 under the Turcomans. In A.D. 1099 the crusader
   Godfrey of Bouillon took the city from the Moslems with great
   slaughter, and was elected king of Jerusalem. He converted the
   Mosque of Omar into a Christian cathedral. During the
   eighty-eight years which followed, many churches and convents
   were erected in the holy city. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
   was rebuilt during this period, and it alone remains to this
   day. In A.D. 1187 the sultan Saladin wrested the city from the
   Christians. From that time to the present day, with few
   intervals, Jerusalem has remained in the hands of the Moslems.
   It has, however, during that period been again and again taken
   and retaken, demolished in great part and rebuilt, no city in
   the world having passed through so many vicissitudes.

     In the year 1850 the Greek and Latin monks residing in
   Jerusalem had a fierce dispute about the guardianship of what
   are called the "holy places." In this dispute the emperor
   Nicholas of Russia sided with the Greeks, and Louis Napoleon,
   the emperor of the French, with the Latins. This led the Turkish
   authorities to settle the question in a way unsatisfactory to
   Russia. Out of this there sprang the Crimean War, which was
   protracted and sanguinary, but which had important consequences
   in the way of breaking down the barriers of Turkish
   exclusiveness.

     Modern Jerusalem "lies near the summit of a broad
   mountain-ridge, which extends without interruption from the
   plain of Esdraelon to a line drawn between the southern end of
   the Dead Sea and the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean."
   This high, uneven table-land is everywhere from 20 to 25
   geographical miles in breadth. It was anciently known as the
   mountains of Ephraim and Judah.

     "Jerusalem is a city of contrasts, and differs widely from
   Damascus, not merely because it is a stone town in mountains,
   whilst the latter is a mud city in a plain, but because while in
   Damascus Moslem religion and Oriental custom are unmixed with
   any foreign element, in Jerusalem every form of religion, every
   nationality of East and West, is represented at one time."

     Jerusalem is first mentioned under that name in the Book of
   Joshua, and the Tell-el-Amarna collection of tablets includes
   six letters from its Amorite king to Egypt, recording the attack
   of the Abiri about B.C. 1480. The name is there spelt Uru-Salim
   ("city of peace"). Another monumental record in which the Holy
   City is named is that of Sennacherib's attack in B.C. 702. The
   "camp of the Assyrians" was still shown about A.D. 70, on the
   flat ground to the north-west, included in the new quarter of
   the city.

     The city of David included both the upper city and Millo, and
   was surrounded by a wall built by David and Solomon, who appear
   to have restored the original Jebusite fortifications. The name
   Zion (or Sion) appears to have been, like Ariel ("the hearth of
   God"), a poetical term for Jerusalem, but in the Greek age was
   more specially used of the Temple hill. The priests' quarter
   grew up on Ophel, south of the Temple, where also was Solomon's
   Palace outside the original city of David. The walls of the city
   were extended by Jotham and Manasseh to include this suburb and
   the Temple (2 Chr. 27:3; 33:14).

     Jerusalem is now a town of some 50,000 inhabitants, with
   ancient mediaeval walls, partly on the old lines, but extending
   less far to the south. The traditional sites, as a rule, were
   first shown in the 4th and later centuries A.D., and have no
   authority. The results of excavation have, however, settled most
   of the disputed questions, the limits of the Temple area, and
   the course of the old walls having been traced.


Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's):

Jerusalem, vision of peace


U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000):

Jerusalem, OH -- U.S. village in Ohio
   Population (2000):    152
   Housing Units (2000): 74
   Land area (2000):     0.251001 sq. miles (0.650090 sq. km)
   Water area (2000):    0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km)
   Total area (2000):    0.251001 sq. miles (0.650090 sq. km)
   FIPS code:            39130
   Located within:       Ohio (OH), FIPS 39
   Location:             39.852261 N, 81.095146 W
   ZIP Codes (1990):     43747
   Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs.
   Headwords:
    Jerusalem, OH
    Jerusalem