salsa

salsa¹ sauce

Pronunciation

• /ˈsal.sa/^[1]

Forms

salsa f (plural salse)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the sauce is inherited from Vulgar Latin *salsa, the feminine of Latin salsus (“salted”) used as a noun.^[2][3][1][4] Meyer-Lübke gives the Latin noun the sense “salt brine; sauce”.^[5]

The same word is French sauce, Occitan sausa, Catalan salsa, Spanish salsa and Portuguese salsa, which in Portuguese also means “parsley”.^[3][5][6] The Latin adjective is the past participle of sallō (“to salt”), from an earlier *saldō, and belongs with sāl (“salt”).^[1][7] De Vaan derives the Latin family from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂l-d- (“salt”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a 1289 account register of the Florentine convent of Santissima Annunziata of the Servants of Mary, with the sense “condiment prepared apart to give flavour to food”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From the 14th century the word also had a figurative sense, “pain, torment”, recorded in Buti.^[9] In the 15th century documents of Perugia call salsa a pit of bubbling mud from which methane escapes, which geology still calls by this name; the Vocabolario Treccani and the GDLI explain it as a metaphor from the sauce.^[2][4][10] This sense passed into German as Salse (1741) and into French as salse (1797).^[11]

In family use salsa is also tomato sauce or tomato paste.^[12] Jocular salsa di san Bernardo is hunger, and to cook something in tutte le salse is to present the same thing in every possible way.^[13][14][15] The word was borrowed as Modern Greek σάλτσα (sáltsa), and through Ottoman Turkish as Turkish salça.^[1]

Timeline

• 1289 – Salsa “sauce” is recorded in a Florentine convent register.^[2][3]
• 14th century – Buti uses the word for pain or torment.^[9]
• 15th century – Perugian documents use salsa for a mud pit giving off methane.^[2]
• 1741 – German Salse is recorded for the mud volcano.^[11]
• 1797 – French salse is recorded in the same sense.^[11]
• 1836 – Salsiera “sauce boat” is first recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sauce: a more or less thick or creamy condiment of various ingredients served with food to improve its taste: salsa verde, salsa tartara.^[12][15][16]
2. (by extension, colloquial) Tomato sauce; tomato paste.^[12][4]
3. (geology) A mud volcano: an eruption of mud, salt water and gas, mostly methane, which builds low cones.^[12][16][4]

Word family

• salsiera
• salsina
• salsetta

salsa² salsa (music and dance)

Etymology tree of salsa²

inherited borrowed derived

Spanish salsa

English salsa

Italian salsa

From the same root · salsa²

Spanish salsera ← salsa

Pronunciation

• /ˈsal.sa/^[1]

Forms

salsa f (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the music and dance is borrowed from Spanish salsa, properly “sauce, hot sauce”.^{[12][15][1][17]} Nocentini takes it from the Spanish of the Americas, where the name of the sauce was given to a style that mixes several musical traditions.^[3] The Spanish word continues Latin salsus (“salted”), like salsa¹.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Italian word is first recorded in 1980, for the Caribbean music that grew out of Latin American traditions at the end of the 1970s.^[12][15][3]

Semantic evolution

The dance danced to this music is called by the same name.^[12][17] The word is invariable in Italian; dictionaries give the Spanish plural salsas.^[12][15]

Timeline

• 1980 – Salsa the music is first recorded in Italian.^[12][3][15]
• 1982 – L'Espresso of 6 June has the headline Avanti a tutta Salsa.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) salsa, a fast music that mixes Latin American traditions with elements of jazz and rock.^[12][15]
2. The dance danced to this music.^[12]