salubriter

Forms

salūbriter (comparative salūbrius, superlative salūberrimē)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin salūber (“healthy, wholesome”) + -ter.^[1] De Vaan explains salūber as presupposing a verb from the stem of salūs (“well-being”), ultimately from Proto-Italic *salu- (“whole, healthy”) and Proto-Indo-European *slH-u- (“whole”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is a joke in Plautus: asked how he is, a character answers that he is starving, “and not at all healthily”.^[1]

Semantic evolution

Cicero asks where old age could cool itself in the shade more healthily, Columella says barley feeds a man more wholesomely than bad wheat, and Pliny the Elder recommends a plant that removes bile most healthily when taken with mead.^[1][3] From “wholesomely” it came to mean “profitably, to good effect”: Livy writes that a war could be prolonged to advantage, and Velleius of laws passed beneficially.^[1][4] Pliny the Younger uses it of buying a small farm cheaply.^[1][3]

British medieval Latin also used it for “safely”, of people returning home unharmed.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it in a joke about starving.^[1][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses the comparative of cooling oneself in the shade.^[1][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of prolonging a war to advantage.^[1][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses the superlative of a remedy.^[1][4][6]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In a way good for the health, wholesomely.^[1][7]
2. Profitably, to good effect; at a good price, cheaply.^[1][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) Safely.^[5]

Related words

• salūber
• salūs
• salvus

Usage notes

The OLD and Pliny's text give the superlative as salūberrimē,^[1][3] while Wiktionary has salūbrissimē.^[8]

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
5. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org