saliva

Forms

saliva f (plural salivas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin salīva (“saliva, spittle”), probably as a learned word.^[2][3][1][4] Corominas suggests that it may not be an old popular word, since forms of escupitina were used for “saliva” from the 13th and 15th centuries and are popular everywhere today.^[5] The word lent itself to learned use through medicine, and as a euphemism that avoided escupir (“to spit”).^[5] Colón has gathered evidence that leans, without settling the matter, towards a popular origin.^[5]

The Latin word is Italian saliva, Catalan saliva, French salive and Portuguese saliva.^[6][7] The Portuguese word is learned as well, beside an inherited Old Galician-Portuguese saiva, and Galician seiva is the Galician form.^[5][7] The French word is not recorded before 1488 according to Vaganay, though Godefroy cites two earlier examples.^[5]

De Vaan connects the Latin noun with Irish sal (“dirt”) and Old High German salo (“dirt”), from Proto-Indo-European *solH- (“dirty yellow, grey”), perhaps through an older adjective.^[8] Wiktionary calls this only a possibility, and also considers an expressive origin, comparing Ancient Greek σίαλον (síalon, “spittle”).^[1] Corominas treats the Greek word as unrelated to the Latin one; it is the source of the learned sialismo and tialina.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas knows only one medieval example: Berceo's El duelo de la Virgen (1236–1246), in the line echávanli en rostro los malos su saliva “the wicked spat their saliva in his face”, said of Christ on the cross.^[5][9] The CDH's text of the poem is an 18th-century copy; the earliest dated manuscripts with the word are the Poridat de las poridades and Alfonso X's Lapidario, both of about 1250.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Alonso de Palencia wrote in 1490 that a snake which tastes the saliva of a fasting man dies of it, and Covarrubias repeated this belief in 1611; he also derived Latin saliva from its being salty, an etymology of his time.^[5][11] Nebrija glossed saliva de la boca with Latin saliva in about 1495.^[5][12] The Diccionario de Autoridades called it “a purely Latin word” and recorded the phrase tragar saliva for being unable to speak out against something that offends.^[13] Gastar saliva “to talk in vain” is in the Academy's dictionary of 1817, and gastar saliva en balde in that of 1869.^[14][15]

The verb salivar was first used by the Navarrese poet Arbolanche in 1566, and in South America it tends to replace escupir as a euphemism;^[16] Argentine and Chilean salivadera is a spittoon.^[5] In Bolivia saliva de la Virgen is a small shrub of the verbena family.^[16]

Timeline

• 1236–1246 – Berceo's El duelo de la Virgen uses the word (in an 18th-century copy).^[9][5]
• c. 1250 – the Poridat de las poridades, Alfonso X's Lapidario and the Moamín have saliua.^[9]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia uses the word several times.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records saliva and salivoso “full of saliva”.^[5][12]
• 1541 – first record in the Americas, in Michoacán.^[17]
• 1566 – first record of the verb salivar, in Arbolanche.^[5]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives Latin saliva from “salty”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “from Latin saliva” and a physiological definition.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. saliva, spittle: the slightly viscous, alkaline liquid secreted into the mouth by the glands, which softens food, helps swallowing and starts digestion.^[2][19][1]

Word family

• salivar
• salivazo
• salival
• salivera
• insalivación
• salivoso
• ensalivar
• insalivar
• salivadera

Related words

• Latin saliva

Usage notes

Tragar saliva means to be lost for words, or to put up in silence with something that offends;^[20] gastar saliva (en balde) is to talk in vain.^[2][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. saliva
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. saliva
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. saliva
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 140
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. saliva
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5849
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. saliva
10. ^ 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. saliva
11. ^ 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. 1280
12. ^ a b 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. saliva
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. saliva
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 781
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 697
16. ^ 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. saliva
17. ^ 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. saliva
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 953
19. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. saliva
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. saliva