salinum

Forms

salīnum n (genitive salīnī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin sāl (“salt”) + -īnus, a neuter of an otherwise unattested adjective ⟨*salīnus⟩ used as a noun,^[2][1] with vās (“vessel”) understood.^[3][4] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of sāl,^[5] which goes back to Proto-Italic *sāls and Proto-Indo-European *sē̆h₂-l-s (“salt”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[5][6] in the Persa, in the proverbial phrase salinum cum sale obsignare, “to seal up the salt-cellar together with the salt”, meaning a saltcellar.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Horace speaks of paternum salinum, “a father's salt-cellar”.^[7] It was also used at sacrifices, as in Livy and Valerius Maximus.^[3][4] Varro, quoted by Nonius, has a masculine plural salini.^[2][4]

In Medieval Latin it also meant a salt market and a toll levied on salt,^[8][9] as in a French royal ordinance of 1363 on the salt taxes.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in the Persa.^[6][10]
• 65–8 BC – Horace speaks of a father's salt-cellar in the Odes.^[7]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy mentions salt-cellars used at sacrifices.^[3][4]
• 1363 – A French royal ordinance mentions the gabellae salinorum.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A saltcellar.^[2][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) A salt market.^[8][9]
3. (Medieval Latin) A toll levied on salt.^[8]

Word family

• salillum

Usage notes

Wiktionary notes that it is not the source of English saline, which goes back to salīna.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c 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 Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c d du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de