Etymologically
Log in

salt

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 22:17. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /sɔːlt/, /sɒlt/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English salt,[2][3] inherited from Old English sealt, salt,[4][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *saltan,[2][4] also the source of Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old Frisian and Gothic salt, Dutch zout and German Salz.[4][2] The root is Proto-Indo-European *sal- (“salt”),[4][2][5] which also gave sāl (“salt”), Greek háls “salt, sea”, Old Irish salann, Welsh halen, Latvian sāls, Old Church Slavonic solĭ, Armenian al and Tocharian A sāle.[2][5] The verb is from Old English sealtan, and the adjective from Old English sealt.[2][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Table salt, sodium chloride: about 1000 in the OED,[8] and implied before 830 in salt-nisse “saltness”, according to Barnhart.[2] The adjective, of salt water, is from before 900.[8][2]

Semantic evolution

From the early 14th century the word was applied to other substances that resemble common salt;[4] in old chemistry a solid, non-flammable substance with a taste, from the 14th century.[5] In alchemy salt was one of the ultimate elements, from the 1580s,[4] and the modern chemical sense, a compound of an acid with a base, is from 1790.[4][2] As a symbol of hospitality, and as the necessary adjunct to food, it is from 1382,[8] and with a grain of salt, translating Latin cum grano salis, from 1647.[8] The figurative sense of what gives piquancy to speech or writing is from the 1570s.[4] The salt of the earth comes from St Matthew's Gospel,[9] and to sit below the salt, to be of lower rank, from the early 17th century, recalls long dining tables where the salt cellar marked off the more honoured guests.[9] An experienced sailor, an old salt, is from 1840, in Dana.[4] Saltcellar is from 1390,[2] its second part being originally saler “salt box”, from Latin salarium, later replaced by the familiar cellar.[9]

Timeline

  • a. 830 – implied in salt-nisse.[2]
  • a. 900 – adjective, of water.[8][2]
  • c. 1000 – common salt.[8]
  • 1382 – a symbol of hospitality.[8]
  • 1390 – saltcellar.[2]
  • 1570s – piquancy, wit.[4]
  • 1647 – with a grain of salt.[8]
  • 1790 – a chemical salt.[4][2]
  • 1840 – an old sailor.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A white crystalline substance, chiefly sodium chloride, used to season and preserve food.
  2. (chemistry) A compound formed when the hydrogen of an acid is replaced by a metal or other positive radical.
  3. salts: a mineral salt used as a medicine, or smelling salts.
  4. Something that adds liveliness or wit.
  5. (informal) An experienced sailor.

Adjective

  1. Containing or tasting of salt; salty.
  2. Preserved in salt: salt cod.
  3. Flooded with sea water: a salt marsh.

Verb

  1. To season or sprinkle with salt.
  2. To cure or preserve with salt.
  3. To add zest to: salted his speech with jokes.
  4. To make (a mine) seem richer by fraudulently placing valuable minerals in it.

Word family

  • salter
  • saltness
  • desalt
  • oversalt
  • salary
  • salad
  • sauce
  • saline
  • salami
  • saltpetre
  • saltcellar

Usage notes

A separate salt, from French à saut “to leaping”, from Latin saltus “leap”, meant a female animal's sexual heat, from 1519.[6][8][3] SALT, from 1968, is an acronym for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the United States and the Soviet Union.[2][4]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press