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A.Word.A.Day--good Samaritan

good Samaritan (good suh-MAR-i-tn) noun

A person who voluntarily helps others in distress. Also Samaritan.

[From the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke (a book of the Bible) where a Samaritan stopped to help a man who had been injured and robbed, while others passed by; Samaritan from Late Latin Samaritanus (a resident of Samaria), ultimately from Greek Samareia, Samaria.]

"A man with a gun was chasing three people through an alley in San Diego the other day when an onlooker jumped on his back. Cut! The onlooker didn't realize he had interrupted the shooting of a scene from a movie based on the old TV series `Hunter.' A city film commission rep told columnist Diane Bell of the San Diego Union-Tribune that neither the good Samaritan nor the actor was injured." Steve Harvey, Well-intentioned Samaritan Halts Shooting by Tackling a Gun-toting Actor, The Los Angeles Times, Aug 20, 2002.

This week's theme: toponyms, or words derived from names of places.

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