salubritas

Forms

salūbritās f (genitive salūbritātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin salūber (“healthy, wholesome”) + -tās.^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives that adjective, like salūs, from a stem going back to Proto-Italic *salu- (“whole, healthy”) and Proto-Indo-European *slH-u- (“whole”), also in salvus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato,^[4] who writes of the good and wholesome qualities of Pythagoras' cabbage.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the quality of promoting health, wholesomeness, and healthy conditions: Varro says that where the place is not healthy, farming is a gamble with the owner's life.^[2] By metonymy it is a means to health, as the simple old remedy of poppy and honey in Pliny the Elder.^[2] It is also good health: Hirtius has someone travel only as far as was thought enough for a change of air for his health.^[2] Of policies it is soundness or benefit, as in Cicero.^[2] Cicero also uses it of the signs of health and of pestilence read in the entrails of victims.^[5] Church Latin glosses it health.^[6] English salubrity dates from the early 15th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of a wholesome cabbage.^[2][4][3]
• 116–27 BC – Varro of healthy farms.^[2]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of soundness and of signs of health.^[2][5][3]
• c. 50 BC – Hirtius of good health.^[2][3]
• early 15th century – English salubrity.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wholesomeness, healthiness; healthy conditions; a means to health.^[2][5][1]
2. Good health.^[2][1][6]
3. Soundness, benefit.^[2][1]

Related words

• salūber
• salūs
• salvus
• English salubrity

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com