sal

Forms

sal f (plural sals)^[1] The DCVB records the pronunciations [sáɫ], [sál] and [sǽɫ].^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sāl (“salt”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Spanish sal, Portuguese sal, Occitan sal, French sel, Italian sale and Romanian sare.^[6][1]

The Latin noun was usually masculine in classical Latin, but neuter in some early and late writers and in part of popular speech; like other neuters it became feminine in late Latin.^[3][7] It has stayed feminine in Catalan, Spanish, most of Occitan, the Franco-Provençal area, northern Italy and Romanian, while the classical gender prevailed in Sardinian, Italian, French and Galician-Portuguese.^[3]

The Latin word continues *sāls, from *sḗh₂l (“salt”); its cognates include ἅλς (háls) and sealt.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the toll tariff (lleuda) of Cotlliure of 1249: tota sal paga lo vintè, “all salt pays a twentieth”.^[3][4] An eye treatment of the same period, the Alcoatí, prescribes water with rock salt (sal gema).^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval texts the word is the mineral, rock salt in particular: the Costums de Tortosa (1272) grant the right to make salt, and Tirant lo Blanc (1460) describes a castle built on a rock made all of salt.^[9] Llull names it among the things suited to their use, salt for salting.^[10] The figurative sense of wit, liveliness and grace appears in Jaume Roig's Spill (1460), as la sal de sapiençia.^[9] Labèrnia in 1839 adds the chemical sense, a compound of an acid and a base.^[11]

Bruguera dates ensalada to Roig (1460) and lists among the derivatives salar, salat and saler.^[4] On the Costa Brava salar also meant to use the articles es and sa instead of el and la.^[3]

Timeline

• 1249 – tota sal in the toll tariff of Cotlliure.^[3][4]
• 13th century – sal gema in the Alcoatí.^[3]
• 1272 – the Costums de Tortosa grant the right de sal a fer, to make salt.^[9]
• 1460 – rock salt in Tirant lo Blanc;^[3] sal de sapiençia in the Spill.^[9]
• 1507 – the Busa–Nebrija dictionary lists sal armoniaca and quarried salt.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary adds the chemical sense.^[11]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary defines it as sodium chloride.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. salt: sodium chloride, the white crystalline substance found in rock and in sea water, used to season and preserve food.^[13][5][1]
2. (chemistry) A salt: a compound formed by the reaction of an àcid with a base.^[5][2]
3. (figurative) wit, liveliness or grace in speech or manner.^[5][2]
4. (figurative) What preserves from corruption or error.^[5][2]

Word family

• salar
• salat
• saler
• salador
• saladura
• salejar
• dessalar
• ensalada

Related words

• Latin sāl
• Spanish sal

Usage notes

Two other old words are spelt sal.^[2][9] One is a form of the subjunctive of salvar, from Latin ⟨salvet⟩, in the greeting Déu vos sal, “God save you”.^[2] Faraudo records sal as a greeting interjection, a variant of salve.^[9] The other is a variant of salv “safe”, used in the plural by Llull (som tuyt sals) and in the Consolat de Mar, and as a conjunction meaning “except”.^[10][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. sal
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 603
4. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 820
5. ^ a b c d e Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. sal
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7521
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 130
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sāl
9. ^ a b c d e f g Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. sal
10. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. sal
11. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. sal
12. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. sal
13. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. sal