sauver

Forms

sauver (present participle sauvant; past participle sauvé; first-person singular present sauf)^[1]

• salvar, salver, salveir^[1][2][3]

The oldest texts write salvar and salver;^[3][4] sauver, with the l turned into a vowel, is usual from about 1180.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin salvō (“to save”),^[1][4][5] a Late Latin verb formed on Latin salvus (“safe, unharmed”).^[3][6] Bloch and Wartburg call the Late Latin verb mainly a word of the Church,^[6] and the DHLF lists its senses "to make well, heal", "to keep, preserve", "to deliver" and, in church Latin, "to bring to eternal salvation".^[3] De Vaan traces salvus to a Proto-Italic stem meaning "whole, healthy" and further to Proto-Indo-European *slH-u- (“whole”),^[7] which Wiktionary gives as *solh₂-.^[1]

The verb lives on in Italian salvare, Old Occitan sauvar, Catalan salvar, Spanish salvar and Portuguese salvar.^[8] In French the forms run from salvar in the Strasbourg Oaths through salver to the later spelling with ⟨au⟩.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Strasbourg Oaths of 842, where the verb means "to stand by, help (someone)":^[9][4][3] si salvaraeio cist meon fradre Karlo "so I will stand by this brother of mine, Charles".^[10] The TLFi reads the passage as "to rescue someone from grave danger".^[11]

Semantic evolution

The DHLF notes that the first sense, "to defend, help someone", did not last.^[3] The religious sense "to save (a soul)" is in the Clermont Passion of about 1000, and "to rescue from danger" in the Vie de saint Alexis; from the latter came sauver la vie "to save someone's life" in the Roman de Troie of about 1165.^[3][11] With a thing as object the verb meant "to keep intact, preserve" from about 1210, and also "to keep (one's word, an oath)".^[3][12] In wishes and oaths se Deus me saut "so may God save me" was a common formula.^[13][14]

Middle French added the reflexive se sauver "to escape" and the cry sauve qui peut (1419), while from about 1370 to the 19th century sauver could also mean "to excuse, gloss over".^[3][4] The modern word is French sauver.^[1]

Timeline

• 842 – salvar and salvarai in the Strasbourg Oaths.^[9][11]
• c. 1000 – salvar in the religious sense in the Clermont Passion.^[15][16][11]
• c. 1090 – salver in the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050 by the TLFi's dating).^[17][18][11]
• 1113–1119 – the first Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.^[2]
• c. 1165 – sauver les vies "to save lives" in the Roman de Troie.^[11]
• c. 1170 – sauver in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[19]
• 1419 – sauve qui peut.^[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. to save, rescue (someone) from danger.^[19][2]
2. (religion) to save, redeem, bring to eternal salvation.^[19][12]
3. to keep, preserve (a thing), to keep (one's word or oath).^[12][2]
4. in wishes and greetings: Deus vos saut "God save you".^[14][13]
5. (reflexive) to escape, save oneself, also to win salvation.^[2][14]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the verb salver, first cites it from 1113–1119, and lists spellings such as salveir, saulver and saver.^[2] Insular texts also use it of salvaging wrecks, and the forms sauf and save as a quasi-preposition "save, except" and "without prejudice to".^[2] Rothwell discusses the legal phrase for remedying a default in court, written sauver or saver in the statutes and Year Books, beside Latin salvare defaltam in 1230.^[20] The MED derives Middle English saven from sauver, salver and saver together with Latin salvāre,^[21] and English save dates from about 1200.^[22]

Word family

• salvaige
• sauvement
• sauveor

Descendants

• Middle French saulver (→ French sauver)^[1]
• Norman sauver^[1]
• Middle English saven (borrowed; → English save)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, the DÉCT and the DMF head the verb sauver,^[14][19][23] the AND and Godefroy's Complément salver.^[2][19] It is a different word from saluer "to greet", although Godefroy also records a saluer meaning "to save".^[24][25]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. salver
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. sauver
4. ^ a b c d e f g Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11:128
5. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 840
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 616
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7557
9. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. Serments
10. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
11. ^ a b c d e f 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
12. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 9:245
13. ^ a b Van Daele, Hilaire, Petit dictionnaire de l'ancien français, Paris: Garnier, p. 448
14. ^ a b c d Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 9:242
15. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. PassionA
16. ^ Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. sauver
17. ^ UD Old French PROFITEROLE and UD Middle French PROFITEROLE treebanks, Universal Dependencies (from the SRCMF and the Base de français médiéval; texts by DEAF siglum), p. AlexisZ
18. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. AlexisP
19. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. sauver
20. ^ Rothwell, William (2004), « Ignorant Scribe and Learned Editor: Patterns of Textual Error in Editions of Anglo-French Texts »; reprinted on the Anglo-Norman Hub, anglo-norman.net
21. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
22. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
23. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. sauver
24. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 7:297
25. ^ Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. salüer