salax

Forms

salāx (genitive salācis), comparative salācior, superlative salācissimus; third-declension one-termination adjective^[2][1]

Etymology

It is from Latin saliō¹ (“to leap, jump”) + -āx (“inclined to”),^[2][1] so that its first meaning was “fond of leaping”, of a male animal mounting the female.^[3][4] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *sal-je- (“to jump”) and Proto-Indo-European *sh₂l-ie/o-, cognate with Ancient Greek ἅλλομαι (hállomai, “to jump”), but notes that the development of the Latin vowel is not straightforward.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest instance the OLD cites is in Varro, who describes cocks that are salācēs, eager to mate, by their muscular build and red comb.^[2] Köbler records the word first in Catullus.^[6]

Semantic evolution

It was said chiefly of male animals and men eager for mating, highly sexed or lecherous: Ovid has a lustful ram, Columella speaks of the most salacious males, and Petronius uses it of a man.^[2][3] In the Priapea Priapus is the salāx deus, and Seneca, as quoted by Lactantius, calls Jupiter salācissimus in the poets.^[2][3][7] Catullus transfers it to a place, the salāx taberna, a tavern full of lust.^[2][8]

From this it came to mean provoking lust, aphrodisiac: Ovid calls the rocket plant herba salāx, and Martial and Columella use it of rocket and of bulbs.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of cocks eager to mate.^[2]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus calls a tavern salāx.^[2][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of a ram and of the rocket plant as an aphrodisiac.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses the superlative of male animals.^[3][7]
• 1640s – English takes it over as salacious “tending to provoke lust”; the sense “lustful” follows in the 1660s.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of men and male animals) Eager to mate, highly sexed, lustful, lascivious.^[2][3]
2. (transferred) Full of lust.^[2][8]
3. Stimulating sexual desire, aphrodisiac.^[2][3]

Word family

• salācitās

Related words

• saliō¹
• English salacious

Usage notes

The OLD records, as doubtful, a noun salax naming an unidentified sea fish, a conjecture in a passage of Pliny the Elder where the manuscripts read solas.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
8. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier