Etymologically
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saluto

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Pronunciation

Forms

saluto m (plural saluti)[1] Old forms include saludo and salùo.[2]

Etymology

It is from Italian salutare (“to greet”), a noun formed from the verb without a suffix.[3][4][5][6][7] The verb is Latin salūtō (“to greet; to pay a visit”), from salūs (“health; safety; greeting”), which also gave salute.[8][1]

The same formation is found in Friulian salût, French salut, Occitan salut and Catalan salut, and in Romanian sărut, which means “kiss”.[9][10] In Romanian the verb săruta has also come to mean “to kiss”, as Old Spanish saludar sometimes did.[9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Bono Giamboni's Libro de' vizî e delle virtudi, before 1292, for the act of greeting, the words or gestures that show someone respect, friendship or affection.[11] Giamboni's translation of Latini's Tesoro tells of a man whose greeting the angel would not return.[2][12]

Semantic evolution

In the poetry of the dolce stil novo the lady's greeting is a central theme: Guinizelli's lo vostro bel saluto e ’l gentil sguardo “your fair greeting and your gentle look” kills the lover, and in the Vita nuova Dante says the aim of his love was once the greeting of Beatrice.[2] The plural saluti in polite formulas and at the end of letters is dated from Gasparo Gozzi, before 1786, and the sense “short formal speech at a public meeting” from 1922.[11]

Tommaseo records an ironic use for unwelcome news or a blow.[12] The military salute and the saluto romano, the raised arm that was compulsory under Fascism, are modern ritual forms.[13][14]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses the word.[11]
  • About 1290–1293 – Dante writes of Beatrice's greeting in the Vita nuova.[2]
  • Before 1786 – Gasparo Gozzi uses saluti as a letter formula.[11]
  • 1922 – The sense “short formal speech” is recorded.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A greeting: a word or gesture, such as a handshake, a wave or a kiss, made to someone on meeting or parting, to show friendship, respect or affection: Mi ha fatto un cenno di saluto dall'altra parte della piazza.[3][4][5]
  2. (chiefly plural) regards: a polite formula, especially at the end of a letter or card: cordiali saluti, distinti saluti.[3][5][13]
  3. A mark of homage or respect, especially at an official ceremony, and a short formal speech of welcome: il saluto del sindaco agli ospiti.[3][4][13]
  4. (military) A salute, made in the way regulations prescribe.[14][13][1]

Word family

  • salutino
  • salutissimo

Usage notes

Togliere or levare il saluto a qualcuno is to stop greeting someone, to break off relations.[13][14] Tanti saluti! can be used ironically to cut a conversation short or to say that something is lost for good.[3][4][13] The GDLI also records two rare old homographs: saluto “salvation”, formed from Latin salūs, and saluto “spiritual ascent”, from salire.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3325
  7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  11. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana