salvo

Forms

salvo (feminine salva, masculine plural salvos, feminine plural salvas)^[1] Old Spanish texts write saluo, salvo and ssaluo; the Glosas Emilianenses have the plural salbos.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin salvus (“whole, unharmed, safe”), a word in use in every period of Spanish and found in all the western Romance languages.^[3][4][5][1] Corominas notes that the treatment of the group /al/, which was not changed, points to a semi-learned development, or to the speech of the upper classes.^[3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese salvo, Catalan salv, French sauf and Italian salvo, and French and Italian also use it for “except”.^[6][1] As a preposition and conjunction meaning “except”, the word is the adjective used in absolute constructions; the DLE gives it as a separate entry derived from the adjective.^[7][3]

The Latin adjective belongs with salūs (“well-being, safety”) and salvē (“hail!”), and goes back to Proto-Italic *salu- (“whole, healthy”), from Proto-Indo-European *slH-u- (“whole”).^[8][4] Its Italic cognates include Oscan salavs (“whole, healthy”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Glosas Emilianenses, of the middle of the 10th century, have sanos et salbos, translating the Latin incolumes “unharmed”.^[3][4] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) salvo means “safe from harm”, and is also used as a noun, “a safe place”: Prended las arcas e metedlas en vuestro salvo “take the chests and put them in safekeeping”.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

In Berceo salvo can mean what salvado “saved” means today, in the religious sense.^[3] Alfonso X's prose uses it for “unharmed”, “excepted” (salua la iusticia “justice excepted”), “valid, in force” and “firm, reliable”.^[10]

The adverbial use “except” is found in Juan Ruiz, in the first half of the 14th century.^[3][4] Because it then did the work of sino, it also took on the adversative sense of that conjunction in 15th- and 16th-century texts such as Columbus's diary, where salvo que means “but rather”.^[3] The Diccionario de Autoridades treats the adjective as a second past participle of salvar and records the adverb “with the exception of”.^[11] Today the adjective is common mainly in sano y salvo, while the preposition is an everyday synonym of excepto.^[12][5]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses gloss Latin incolumes as sanos et salbos.^[3][4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it as an adjective and as a noun, en vuestro salvo.^[3][9]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses the sense “excepted”.^[10]
• 1335 – the adverbial use, “except”, first recorded in Juan Ruiz.^[4][3]
• 15th–16th centuries – salvo and salvo que are used for “but” and “but rather”, as in Columbus's diary.^[3]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the adverb “with the exception of”.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary records the phrases a salvo and a su salvo.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. safe, unharmed: having come out of a danger without injury: Llegaron sanos y salvos al refugio.^[5][1][12]
2. Excepted, left out.^[5][10]

Preposition

1. except, apart from: Abrimos todos los días salvo el lunes.^[7][1][12]

Conjunction

1. (formal, in salvo que) unless: Saldremos a las ocho, salvo que llueva.^[1][14]

Word family

• salvedad
• salvoconducto

Related words

• salvar
• salud
• salvación
• Latin salvus
• Portuguese salvo

Usage notes

Set phrases include a salvo “out of danger, unharmed”, en salvo “in safety, free” and a su salvo “at one's ease, without risk”.^[5][15] As a preposition salvo is usually pronounced unstressed, as part of the following word.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. salvo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 142
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. salvo
5. ^ a b c d e 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. salvo
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. salvus
7. ^ a b 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. salvo 2
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. salvus
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. salvo
10. ^ 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. salvo
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. vol. 6
12. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. salvo
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 783
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. salvo
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 956