salar

Forms

salar (first-person singular present salo, first-person singular preterite salé, past participle salado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *salāre (“to salt”), a verb formed on sāl (“salt”).^[1][2] Corominas calls it a derivative of sal common to all the Romance languages, which replaced the Latin verb sallīre (“to salt”).^[3][4] Wiktionary describes the Vulgar Latin verb as a change of conjugation of that Latin verb, itself formed on the noun.^[1][5]

The same verb is Catalan salar, French saler and Italian salare.^[1] The western languages use Portuguese salgar and Galician salgar instead, from *salicāre;^[6] Old Spanish had this verb too, as salgar “to salt; to give salt to cattle”.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas and the BDELC date the verb from Nebrija's dictionary of about 1495, which gives Latin salio for it, while the participle salado is already in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[3][7][4] The prose of Alfonso X has the participle of the verb in the sense “cured with salt”: guardate delos pescados frescos & salados “keep away from fresh and salted fish”.^[8] The Poema de Fernán González (c. 1250, in a 15th-century copy) also speaks of fish wanted fresh or salados.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) defined the verb as putting salt on something so that it keeps and does not go bad, and added the sense “to put too much salt in a dish”.^[10] Terreros noted that in the Americas it was also said of sugar, the dark kind being said to “salt” more than the white.^[11] In 1846 Salvá recorded Mexican senses: “to play truant” and, in the reflexive, “to come to grief”.^[12]

The figurative senses of Latin America grew from there: “to spoil, ruin” and “to bring bad luck”, which DAMER records in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and parts of South America, and “to stain someone's honour” in Peru.^[13][14] In the Canary Islands salar a customer is to overcharge him, a use Millares described in 1932.^[15][16] In Judeo-Spanish the verb also names the salting of meat to draw out the blood before it is cooked.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the participle and adjective salado appears in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[3][7]
• c. 1254 – the prose of Alfonso X speaks of pescados salados, “salted fish”.^[8]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the verb with Latin salio and salo.^[7][4]
• 1549 – a record from Santo Domingo says the people salan los pescados for their food.^[18]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it and adds the sense “to oversalt”.^[10]
• 1846 – Salvá records the Mexican senses “to play truant” and “to come to grief”.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin salire.^[19]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cure meat or fish with salt to preserve it: En la costa salaban el bacalao en grandes barricas.^[14][20]
2. To season food with salt.^[14][1]
3. To put too much salt in a dish, to oversalt.^[14][20]
4. (Latin America) To spoil or ruin something; also reflexive.^[14][13]
5. (Latin America) To bring bad luck to someone or something; reflexive, to have bad luck: Desde que me crucé con ese gato, alguien me ha salado.^[14][13][21]
6. (Peru) To dishonour someone; also reflexive.^[14]
7. (Canary Islands) To overcharge a customer.^[16][15]

Word family

• salado
• saladura
• salazón
• desalar

Related words

• sal
• salgar
• salario
• Catalan salar
• French saler

Usage notes

A separate noun salar (masculine) is used in Argentina for a salitral, ground where saltpetre forms, and more generally for a salt flat or salt pan;^[14][1] Wiktionary derives it from sal with the suffix -ar.^[14][1] Earlier dictionaries of americanisms record it in Bolivia and Chile, and in Colombia and Argentina, in the sense of a salt works.^[22][23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5838
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 130
4. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. salar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. saliō
6. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. salgar
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sal
8. ^ a b 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. salar
9. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. salar
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 21
11. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 421
12. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 973
13. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. salar
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. salar
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. salar
16. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. salar
17. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. salâr
18. ^ 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. salar
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 952
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. salar
21. ^ 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. salar
22. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 729
23. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 58