sal

Forms

sal f (plural sales)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish sal, inherited from Latin sal (“salt”).^[2][3][4][1] The word is in general use in every period and is common to all the Romance languages.^[2]

The same word is Portuguese sal, Galician sal, Asturian sal, Catalan sal, Occitan sal, French sel, Italian sale and Romanian sare.^[5][6][1] English salt is a Germanic cognate.^[1][7]

In classical Latin the noun was usually masculine, and neuter only in some archaic and late writers.^[2][8] Corominas thinks the neuter took root in early Vulgar Latin and, like many neuters, became feminine in late Latin.^[2] The feminine survives in Castilian, Catalan, most of Occitan, northern Italy and Romanian, while Sardinian, Romansh, Italian, French and Galician-Portuguese kept the masculine.^[2] The masculine reaches some Leonese dialects, and the Asturian word is masculine as well.^[2][9] Wiktionary, by contrast, says that it is not known how the noun became feminine.^[1]

sāl goes back to Proto-Italic *sāls and Proto-Indo-European *sḗh₂l, with cognates such as Ancient Greek ἅλς (háls).^[1][7][8] De Vaan reconstructs a nominative *sē̆h₂-l-s beside oblique forms in *sh₂-l-, an ablaut that Latin kept in the long vowel of the nominative against the short vowel of the genitive.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1220–1250, in Berceo, whose Sacrificio de la misa asks for the host to be made sin sal, sin levadura “without salt, without leaven”.^{[2][3][10][11]} The CDH has earlier hits in the Fuero de Madrid, in a copy of the first half of the 13th century, which regulates the measures of grain et de la sal, and in the Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250).^[10][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's Lapidario treats salt as a stone that dries meat and preserves it, and distinguishes sal armoniaco and sal gema; the Partidas quote the words vos sodes sal de la tierra “you are the salt of the earth”.^[13] Covarrubias in 1611 named wisdom as the first of its figurative senses, after vos estis sal terrae, and also used it of a witty person.^[14] Autoridades gave the chemists' sense, salt as one of the first principles of all mixed bodies, and the sense “wisdom”.^[15]

The Academy's 1843 edition defined salt in chemistry as a compound of an acid and a metal oxide; in 1884 it gave Del lat. sal and the figurative sense “wit, grace in speech”.^[16][17] The derivative salero “salt cellar” came to mean “wit, charm”, and the exclamation ¡anda, salero! is found in several writers around 1843 and spread from Andalusia to Madrid.^[2]

In Mexico, Central America, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru sal means “bad luck”.^[18][19] Santamaría records it especially in the phrases tener sal and estar salado.^[20]

Timeline

• 1161 – first record of the derivative salina “salt works”, in a Mozarabic charter.^[2][3]
• 1218–c. 1250 – sal in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[10]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo's sin sal, sin levadura.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario describes kinds of salt.^[13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin sal and Greek hals.^[21]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas: rock salt in Puerto Rico.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias gives “wisdom” as the first figurative sense.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy gives the chemical definition.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the etymology and the sense “wit”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. salt: sodium chloride, a white crystalline substance used to season and preserve food, abundant in sea water and in the earth's crust: Échale una pizca de sal al arroz.^[4][1]
2. wit, sharpness and liveliness in speech.^[4][23]
3. grace, charm and elegance in one's manner.^[4]
4. (chemistry) A salt: a compound formed when the hydrogen of an acid is replaced by a base.^[4][1]
5. (Mexico, Central America, Dominican Republic) Bad luck, misfortune.^[4][18][1]
6. (in the plural) smelling salts.^[4]
7. (in the plural) bath salts.^[4][1]

Word family

• salar
• salazón
• salero
• salado
• saladero
• saleroso

Related words

• ensalada
• salitre
• salmuera
• salso
• salsa
• salario
• salina
• insulso
• salobre
• Latin sal
• English salt

Usage notes

Sal is feminine in standard Spanish (la sal), but masculine in Asturian and some Leonese speech.^[2][9] Set phrases include sal de la tierra “salt of the earth” and sal gema “rock salt”.^[13][1] The spelling sal is also the imperative of salir.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 130
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sal
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sal
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. sal
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sal
11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. sal
12. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sal
13. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. sal
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1277
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 19
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 650
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 951
18. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. sal
19. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. sal
20. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 57
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 412
22. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sal
23. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sal