sel

Forms

sel m (plural sels)^[1] Old French sel, also sal, sau and even ser.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French sel, inherited from Latin sāl (“salt, sharp wit”).^[4][5][2][6] The Latin word, masculine and sometimes neuter, also meant “sea” in poetry and “wit” by figure.^[4][2] Rey compares it with Ancient Greek ἅλς (háls, “salt, sea”), Old Church Slavonic соль (solĭ), Irish salann and Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐍄 (salt);^[2] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *seh₂l-.^[1]

Cognate with Italian sale, Romanian sare, Occitan sal, Catalan sal, Spanish sal and Portuguese sal.^[3][7][8] The word became feminine in the whole Iberian Peninsula and in France south of a line from the mouth of the Loire to the southern Vosges, but stayed masculine north of that line and in Italian, Sardinian and Romansh.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in the Anglo-Norman Voyage de saint Brendan (about 1120) for common salt.^[4][9] A 13th-century line of the Roman de Renart speaks of the time que l'en metoit bacons en sel, when hams were put in salt.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Its central role in seasoning and preserving food in the Middle Ages explains the many phrases and derivatives.^[2] Varieties were named sel gemme (12th century, sal gemme), sel commun (1549) and sel marin (1694), and aller au sel (1611) meant to buy provisions, in the time of the salt tax.^[2] After the Bible the word became a symbol of spiritual strength (1534), as in vous êtes le sel de la terre.^[2]

From Middle French it named other substances that looked like salt, such as sel de nitre (1314), and the plural les sels (1764) smelling salts.^[4][2] Old chemistry called any soluble solid a salt, until Guyton de Morveau and Lavoisier gave it its modern sense in 1787, a compound in which the hydrogen of an acid is replaced by a metal.^[4][2] The Latin figurative sense “sharp wit” was taken up in the 16th century, as in sel attique (1586).^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – First recorded in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[4]
• 1314 – Henri de Mondeville writes sel de nitre.^[4]
• 1534 – Le sel de la terre is recorded.^[2]
• 1586 – Le Loyer uses sel for the wit of an epigram.^[4]
• 1694 – Sel marin is recorded.^[2]
• 1764 – Les sels names smelling salts.^[4]
• 1787 – Guyton de Morveau and Lavoisier give it its chemical sense.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Salt, sodium chloride, used to season and preserve food: sel fin, gros sel, sel gemme.^[3][4][1]
2. (figurative) Wit, what gives a remark or a story its spice: une anecdote qui ne manque pas de sel.^[3][4][1]
3. (chemistry) A salt, a compound formed when the hydrogen of an acid is replaced by a metal.^[4][1]
4. (in the plural) Smelling salts.^[4][1]
5. Le sel de la terre: the best and most active element among people.^[2]
6. Mettre son grain de sel: to put in one's word uninvited.^[1]

Word family

• saler
• saloir
• salure
• salière
• salin
• dessaler
• saugrenu
• salant
• salaison
• saupoudrer
• saupiquet

Related words

• sauce
• saumâtre
• saumure
• salade
• saucisse
• Latin sāl

Usage notes

The old form sau survives in saupoudrer and saugrenu.^[6] Littré records a feminine sau in Saintonge, in line with the southern feminine gender.^[8][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 76b
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)