salami

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian salami, the plural of salame (“spiced pork sausage”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} recorded as salamme in 1560,^[9] from Vulgar Latin *salāmen,^{[4][5][6][10]} from *salō (“to salt”),^[4][5][8] from Latin sāl (“salt”),^{[4][5][7][11]} from Proto-Indo-European *sal- (“salt”).^[5][12] The Italian etymological dictionary of Cortelazzo and Zolli gives Late Latin salāmen as a Late Latin word of uncertain meaning.^[9] English took the Italian plural for a singular, so that it now makes its own plural, with an added -s or unchanged.^[13][7][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A highly salted and flavoured Italian sausage: 1852, in C. F. Cooper's translation of I. Pfeiffer.^[2][5][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1850, and Dictionary.com 1850–55.^[7][10]

Semantic evolution

The sausage's habit of being cut in thin slices gave the word a second life in the 20th century.^[1] Salami tactics, the piecemeal removal of an opposition, is recorded from 1952, in the Times;^[2] Wiktionary takes it as a calque of Hungarian szalámitaktika, coined by the Hungarian communist Mátyás Rákosi.^[1] Salami technique followed in 1975, in the Economist, for a plan carried out in small or imperceptible steps, and especially for a computer fraud that takes tiny sums from many accounts;^[2][3] by 1979 salami alone could mean this.^[2] A separate slang use for the penis is recorded from 1967,^[15] and the OED has it from 1977, in Annie Hall, in the phrase hide the salami.^[2]

Timeline

• 1852 – an Italian sausage.^[2][5][6] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates it to 1850.^[7]
• 1952 – salami tactics, the piecemeal elimination of an opposition.^[2]
• 1967 – slang, the penis.^[15]
• 1975 – salami technique, a plan carried out in small steps; a computer fraud.^[2]
• 1979 – salami alone for the salami technique.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A highly seasoned sausage, originally Italian, often flavoured with garlic and usually sliced thin: a sandwich of salami and provolone.^{[8][10][13][2]}
2. A way of carrying out a plan by small or barely visible steps; especially a computer fraud that moves tiny sums from many accounts into another.^[2][3]
3. (slang) The penis, especially in hide the salami, to have sexual intercourse.^[2][15]

Related words

• salt
• salad
• salary
• saline
• salsa
• sauce
• sausage

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
14. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com