salière

Forms

salière f (plural salières)^[1] Old French salere (before 1188), sailliere (late 12th century) and saliere (about 1225).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French salere, the feminine of the Old French masculine noun saler or salier (“salt cellar”) (12th century), inherited from Latin salārius (“of salt”), an adjective formed on sāl (“salt”).^[2][3][1] Rey glosses the Latin adjective as describing the way by which salt is carried, and notes that as a noun it meant a dealer in salted goods.^[4] The masculine is recorded only rarely, and the feminine replaced it.^[4]

Compare Walloon salîr (“salt chest”), Occitan saliera and Italian saliera.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, as salere in Partonopeus de Blois (before 1188), already names the small dish of salt set on the dining table.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The table salt cellar could be a costly object: an inventory quoted by Littré describes the great salt cellar in the shape of a ship that the city of Paris gave the king, and another one in agate with a gold lid on four gold wheels.^[5] By 1680 the word also named the box in which salt was kept for the kitchen.^[3] Littré notes that an overturned salt cellar was held to foretell misfortune, and that ouvrir des yeux grands comme des salières was said of someone staring eagerly at something.^[5]

By likeness of shape, a salt cellar having one or two hollows, the word came to name the hollow above a horse's eye (1600, Olivier de Serres), later the same hollow in a person, and the hollow behind the collarbone of a thin person (1611, Cotgrave), whence the old phrase montrer ses salières “to wear a low neckline” (1862).^[4][2][6]

Timeline

• before 1188 – Salere appears in Partonopeus de Blois.^[2]
• c. 1225 – The form saliere is found in Durmart le Gallois.^[2]
• 1406 – The diminutive saleron is formed on salere.^[4]
• 1600 – Olivier de Serres uses it for the hollow above a horse's eye.^[2][5]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the hollow behind the collarbone.^[2][6]
• 1680 – Richelet records the kitchen salt box.^[3]
• 1718 – The Académie applies the horse's hollow to people.^[2]
• 1862 – Montrer ses salières is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A salt cellar or saltshaker, the small container of salt put on the table for meals.^[6][2][1]
2. (dated) A wooden box for kitchen salt, hung by the fireplace to keep it dry.^[5][3]
3. The hollow above a horse's eye, deepening with age or thinness; also of a person.^[6][3]
4. (familiar) The hollow behind the collarbone of a thin person.^[6][4]

Word family

• saleron

Related words

• sel
• saler
• salaire
• Latin sāl

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert