salute

Forms

salute f (plural saluti)^[1] An old form is Old Italian saluta, and old and dialect texts also have sallute, salù and salùe.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin salūs (“health; safety, deliverance”), from the accusative salūtem.^[5][6][7][1] The Latin noun was used as a wish and a greeting, and was formed beside salvus (“safe, unharmed, whole”).^[6][5][1] It is found in all the Romance languages except Romanian: French salut, Occitan salut, Catalan salut, Spanish salud and Portuguese saúde.^[6][2]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *salūts, earlier *solūts, from Proto-Indo-European *solh₂- (“whole, complete”); Latin salvus is a doublet from the same root.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record DELI gives is in Bono Giamboni's Vizi e virtù, before 1292, in the sense “salvation, deliverance”.^[5] The sense “health”, the good working of body and mind, appears in the Italian translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, about 1350.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian salute was first safety and rescue from danger, and in religious language the salvation of the soul: Dante calls the hound of Inferno 1 the salute of quell’umile Italia.^[4][9][10] The sense “greeting” has become archaic.^[9] Health, the main sense of the modern word, is recorded from the mid-14th century, and salute is now one of the basic words of the language.^[5][7]

As an interjection the word is a toast and a wish to someone who sneezes.^[1][9][11] The custom is old: Pliny asks Cur sternuentes salutamus?, “why do we greet those who sneeze?”^[5] DELI notes, however, that Latin seems not to have used salus! itself as a formula, so Benveniste's derivation of Latin salūtō from it has been doubted.^[5] Boerio (1829) records salute said to someone who sneezes, and Tommaseo the toast salute al tale.^[5] Salutista, a member of the Salvation Army, is French salutiste (1895); its later sense, someone over-anxious about health, was Neapolitan in 1923.^[5]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses salute for “salvation”, and saluto “greeting”.^[5]
• About 1350 – The translation of Crescenzi uses it for bodily health.^[5]
• 1829 – Boerio records salute! to someone who sneezes.^[5]
• 1872 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the toast salute al tale.^[5]
• 1895 – Salutista “Salvationist” is recorded.^[5]
• 1986–1998 – The surtax called tassa sulla salute is in force.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The physical and mental state of an organism, good or bad: Come va la salute di tuo padre?^[7][12][9]
2. health: wellbeing of body and mind, freedom from illness: Lo sport fa bene alla salute.^{[7][12][13][1]}
3. (literary) Safety, salvation; spiritual salvation: la salute dell’anima.^[9][11][13]
4. (archaic) A greeting.^[9]

Interjection

1. Salute!: cheers (in a toast), or bless you (to someone who sneezes).^{[1][9][11][5]}

Word family

• saluto
• salutare
• salutista
• salutismo
• salutifero
• salutazione

Related words

• salvo
• salubre
• Latin salūs

Usage notes

Common phrases include alla salute! (in a toast), bere alla salute di qualcuno, essere il ritratto della salute, scoppiare di salute, quando c’è la salute c’è tutto and the ironic ti puzza la salute?, asked of someone who seems to be looking for trouble.^{[7][12][13][11]} Casa di salute, a private clinic, is a calque of French maison de santé.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3325
3. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
4. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 17, 456
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 385
9. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli