saltus

saltus¹ leap

Forms

saltus m (genitive saltūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from saliō “to leap” with the action suffix -tus.^[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gaffiot cites Lucretius, and Cicero has saltū ūtī “to leap”.^[3][4] Köbler dates Lucretius 96–55 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It meant a jump, leap, bound, as in Cicero, Seneca and Virgil, with saltum dare “to make a leap”, as in Ovid.^[2][3][4] Sallust says Pompey competed in leaping with the agile and in running with the swift.^[4] In Ovid it also meant a stage, step.^[2]

In Medieval Latin it meant a stride as a measure of length, an assault, and the skipping of an intermediate order in ordination.^[6] It survives in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese salto and French saut.^[1] English sault “waterfall, rapid” came about 1600 through colonial French.^[7]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it.^[3][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses saltū ūtī.^[4][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of leaping.^[3][5]
• c. 1600 – English sault is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A leap, jump, bound.^[2]
2. (figurative) A stage, step.^[2]
3. (Medieval Latin) A stride; an assault.^[6]

Word family

• salticus
• saltuātim

saltus² forest pass, woodland pasture

Forms

saltus m (genitive saltūs); fourth declension^[1]

Etymology

The forest pass is of uncertain origin; it is sometimes associated with saltus “leap”.^[2][1] Varro derived it from salvus, and Isidore of Seville from trees leaping upward.^[2][1][8] Georges compares Ancient Greek ἄλσος (álsos, “grove”), which Wiktionary thinks unlikely, and Fay compared Proto-Germanic *walþuz (“forest”), as does Köbler.^[9][1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius speaks of the hiding places of forest passes and muddy bogs.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It meant hilly country with woods and ravines, and especially a narrow pass or defile, as Livy's Caudine Forks, “two high narrow wooded passes”, and the pass of Thermopylae.^[2][9] Aelius Gallus defines it as land with woods and pastures and herdsmen's huts, and it came to mean a woodland pasture and an estate with pastures, as in Cicero and the jurists.^[4][9] As a land measure it was four centuriae, 800 iugera.^[9][1] Plautus has the proverb “to catch two boars in one saltus”.^[2][9] It survives in Spanish soto and Portuguese souto “grove”.^[1]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius, of forest passes.^[2][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus' proverb of two boars.^[2][9]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar, of the passes of the Pyrenees.^[2][9]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, of the Caudine Forks.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow pass, defile.^[2][9]
2. Wooded, hilly country; a woodland pasture; an estate.^[4][9]
3. A land measure of four centuriae.^[9][1]

Word family

• saltuārius
• saltuensis
• saltuōsus

Related words

• saliō
• saltō
• resiliō
• English sault

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn