salsa

Forms

salsa f (plural salses)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan salsa, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin *salsa, a noun made from the feminine of salsus (“salted”).^[1][2][3] The Latin adjective is the past participle of sallō (“to salt”), a verb from sāl (“salt”).^[3][1] Bruguera places the word in the family of sal.^[4]

The same noun is Italian salsa, French sauce, Old Occitan sausa, Spanish salsa and Portuguese salsa.^[5]

In Old Catalan the adjective itself survived as ⟨sals⟩, ⟨salsa⟩ “salted”: a document of Vinçà of 1377 still pairs ⟨carn salada⟩ with ⟨salsa⟩, apparently salt meat and salted provisions.^[6] Coromines notes that in Llull's Blanquerna the word is already a noun but may still mean salted food, and the NGGL reads one passage of the Llibre de contemplació the same way, as salted meat or fish.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Jaume I's chronicle the king lets each baron who came with him take into his tent bread, wine, wax, salsa and fruit;^[8] Faraudo defines this first sense as a condiment or spice, mostly used in the plural.^[8] In Llull's Llibre de contemplació good salsa is listed with good bread, wine, meat, fish and fruit.^[7]

Semantic evolution

By the 14th century the word meant a liquid seasoning made of salt, spices, oil and plant juices: in the Recull d'eximplis a cooked cock is served with salsa and pepper poured over it.^[8] The Llibre de Sent Soví, a cookbook dated 1324 with a question mark, names and gives recipes for many kinds: salsa camallina, white, green and fine sauce, and sauces of hens, geese and peacock.^[6][9] Gual Camarena notes that medieval salsa also had the general value of spices or a mixture of spices.^[10]

Faraudo records a figurative medieval sense, a punishment or sharp rebuke, and Muntaner's phrase portar la salsa a la boca, to be so hungry that any food tastes good.^[8] The same idea lives on in salsa de sant Bernat, hunger, which the dictionary of Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà already lists as a familiar expression.^[11][12] Labèrnia gives the figurative senses of anything that stirs the appetite and of the ornaments that please the eye.^[13] The DIEC2 keeps the sense of an accessory that adds interest to the main thing.^[12] In Ibiza the word names a Christmas dish, and the DEIEC adds the Latin American dance music.^[3][14]

Timeline

• 1244–1274 – Jaume I's Llibre dels fets lists salsa among a camp's provisions.^[8]
• c. 1271 – Llull uses the word in the Llibre de contemplació.^[7]
• 1279–1299 – first dated text in CICA, the Clams i crims of medieval Valencia.^[9]
• 1324 (?) – the Llibre de Sent Soví gives recipes for many sauces.^[6][9]
• 1325 – Muntaner's chronicle has portar la salsa a la boca.^[8]
• 1803 – salsa de sant Bernat “hunger” in the dictionary of Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà.^[11]
• 1932 – Fabra defines the sauce and the figurative “accessory”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. sauce, a liquid or creamy mixture added to a dish to give it flavour: Han servit el conill amb una salsa d'ametlles.^[12][3][1]
2. salsa de Sant Bernat: hunger, which makes any food taste good.^[12]
3. An accessory thing that gives grace or interest to the main one.^[12][2]
4. (Ibiza) A Christmas dish made with hen, mutton and sausage broth.^[3]
5. (music) salsa, a Latin American dance music.^[14][1]

Word family

• salsera
• salser
• salsejar
• salsar

Related words

• salsitxa
• sal
• Latin salsus
• Spanish salsa
• French sauce

Usage notes

The name of Salses in Roussillon, with its lake, comes in Coromines's view from Latin aquas salsas “salt waters”, since the great spring that feeds the lake is very salty.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. salsa
3. ^ 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. salsa
4. ^ Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 820
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7550
6. ^ a b c d e 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
7. ^ a b c Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. salsa
8. ^ a b c d e f Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. salsa
9. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. salsa
10. ^ Gual Camarena, Miguel, Vocabulario del comercio medieval, online edition, Universidad de Murcia, https://www.um.es/lexico-comercio-medieval, p. s.v. salsa
11. ^ a b Esteve, Joaquim; Bellvitges, Josep; Juglà, Antoni (1803–1805), Diccionario catalán-castellano-latino, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. salsa
12. ^ a b c d e 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. salsa
13. ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. salsa
14. ^ a b Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. salsa
15. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. salsa