saliva

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English salive,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French salive and directly borrowed from Latin salīva (“spittle”);^[4][2][3] the Latin form saliva was borrowed again later, and Barnhart dates it to 1676.^[3] The OED, Hoad and Merriam-Webster derive it simply from Latin.^[5][6][7] The Latin word is of uncertain origin.^[3][8][9] Etymonline takes it from Proto-Italic *sal-iwo- (“dirty yellow”), from Proto-Indo-European *sal- (“dirty; gray”), the root of sallow.^[4][7] Klein thinks it possibly related to salix (“willow”), the tree with greyish leaves, and cognate with Scottish Gaelic sal (“filth”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Spittle, the fluid of the mouth: the OED's first quotation is from about 1400, in the poem Pety Job.^[5] The Middle English Dictionary and Barnhart cite the form salive from before 1425, in the Middle English version of Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie,^[2][3][4] where it is glossed "spotelle", spittle.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word entered English as a medical term, and Barnhart dates the Latin spelling saliva to 1676, in Richard Wiseman's surgical treatises.^[3] Johnson (1755), quoting Wiseman, explained it as anything spat up, but more strictly the juice of the salivary glands.^[10] Related words followed: salivation in 1598, salivate in 1657 and salivary in 1709.^[3] In the 20th century glassmakers used the word for unwanted small bubbles in glass.^[5][11]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – spittle.^[5]
• before 1425 – the form salive, in a surgical text.^[2][3]
• 1676 – the Latin spelling saliva, in Richard Wiseman.^[3]
• 1969 – small bubbles in glass.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The clear, watery fluid that the salivary glands release into the mouth, which moistens food for swallowing and starts digestion; spittle.^{[7][9][5][11]}
2. (glassmaking) Small unwanted bubbles in glass.^[5][11]

Word family

• salivary
• salivate

Related words

• salivation
• sallow

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press