Etymologically
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salad

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈsæl.əd/; /ˈsæl.ɪd/ (US)[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English salat, salade, borrowed from Old French salade and Medieval Latin *salata,[2][3][4] from Provençal salada,[4][5][6] from Vulgar Latin *salāta, salted, short for herba salata, salted vegetables,[3] the feminine past participle of *salāre, to salt, from Latin sal (“salt”) (see salt),[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *sal- (“salt”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A raw vegetable dish: before 1399 in Barnhart, the late 14th century in Etymonline.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that the root implies it was the dressing or seasoning, not the vegetables, that originally characterized a salad.[7] Dutch salade, German Salat and Russian salat come from Romance.[3] Raw vegetables or herbs used as food are from about 1460;[8] in the US, colloquially, lettuce by 1838.[3][8] Dishes of chopped meat mixed with raw herbs, as chicken salad, followed.[3] Salad days, the time of youthful inexperience, is from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1606): My salad days, when I was green in judgement.[3][7] Salad oil is by the 1550s and salad bar by 1940.[3]

Timeline

  • before 1399 – a raw vegetable dish.[2]
  • 1550s – salad oil.[3]
  • 1606 – salad days.[3][7]
  • 1838 – lettuce (US).[3]
  • 1940 – salad bar.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A cold dish of raw or cooked vegetables, usually with a dressing.
  2. A dish of chopped food such as meat, fish or eggs mixed with a dressing: potato salad.
  3. A vegetable, especially lettuce, eaten raw.

Word family

  • chef's salad
  • salad bar
  • salad bowl
  • salad burnet
  • salad days
  • salad dressing
  • salad fork
  • salad oil

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press