salutary

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French salutaire (“beneficial”) or directly borrowed from Latin salūtāris (“healthful, wholesome”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} with its ending changed under the influence of the English suffix -ary.^[8][9] The Anglo-Norman adjective is recorded from 1435, meaning salutary, beneficial.^[10] The noun is inherited from Middle English salutari (“a remedy”), from the same Latin adjective.^[11][4] The Latin adjective is from salūs (“health, safety, well-being, greeting”),^{[2][4][12][7]} which is related to salvus (“safe”),^[7][5] and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to Proto-Indo-European *sol- (“whole, well-kept”).^[4][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun, a remedy: about 1426, in Audelay's poems.^[11][3] As an adjective, beneficial: 1490, in Caxton's translation of Eneydos.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The noun remained rare.^[5] The dictionaries differ on the order of the adjective's senses: the OED and Hoad record the general sense "conducive to well-being, remedying some evil" from the 15th century and the specific sense "conducive to health" only from the 17th (1649, in Bishop J. Taylor),^[2][7] while Etymonline starts from "wholesome, healing" and finds the general sense by the 19th century.^[4] Johnson (1755) gives "wholesome; healthful; safe; advantageous", and quotes Bentley for the "salutary emanations" of the Saviour's divine virtue.^[13] The Shorter Oxford also records a theological use, bringing or aiding salvation.^[5] The health sense is now marked archaic,^[14][5] and the word is mostly used of something unpleasant that does good in the end.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1426 – noun, a remedy.^[11][3]
• 1490 – adjective, conducive to well-being, beneficial.^[2][3]
• 1649 – conducive to health, promoting recovery.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Producing a good or corrective effect, especially of something unwelcome; beneficial: The failed audit proved salutary for the firm.^{[15][8][14][2]}
2. (archaic) Promoting health; curative or wholesome.^{[14][8][15][2]}

Noun

1. (obsolete) A remedy.^[11][5][14]

Word family

• salutarily
• salutariness
• nonsalutary
• unsalutary

Related words

• salute
• salutation
• safe
• salubrious

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ a b c d 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)
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d e Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins