zout

Forms

zout n (plural zouten, diminutive zoutje n)^[1] Adjective: zout (comparative zouter, superlative zoutst).^[1] The eastern forms zalt (mainly in Dutch Limburg and Gelderland) and zolt (in the north-east: Groningen, Overijssel, Drenthe and Gelderland) survive in dialects, and the spelling zaut was still regular in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch sout, inherited from Old Dutch salt, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *salt, inherited from Proto-Germanic *saltą (“salt”).^[3][1][4] Middle Dutch also had the eastern form salt.^[3] The noun is the same word as Old Saxon salt (Middle Low German solt), Old High German salz (German Salz), Old Frisian salt (West Frisian sâlt), Old English sealt (English salt), Old Norse salt (Swedish salt) and Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐍄 (salt).^[3][4] The adjective has its own Germanic stem, which the EWN gives as ⟨*saltu-⟩ and Wiktionary as Proto-Germanic *saltaz (“salty”), continued in Old Norse saltr and in Middle Low German, Old Frisian and Old English forms identical to the nouns.^[3][1][5] The strong verb *saltaną (“to salt”) gave souten (modern zouten), salzan, sealtan and Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐍄𐌰𐌽 (saltan);^[3][4] Kroonen takes the noun to be a neuter collective formed from this verb.^[3][4]

These forms go back to Proto-Indo-European *sh₂el-d-, with a dental suffix also found in Latin sallō (“to salt”) and in Lithuanian saldùs (“sweet”).^[3][4] Van Haeringen explains “sweet” from “salty” through “tasty”.^[6] Without the dental, the Indo-European word for salt was an ablauting stem Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, continued in Latin sāl, Ancient Greek ἅλς (háls), Latvian sāls, Old Irish salann, Welsh halen and Tocharian A sāle.^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest records are place and water names: the adjective appears in Saltanauua, a stretch of water near Veurne in West Flanders now called Zoutenaaie, in 991, and the noun in Soutkota, Zuidkote near Dunkirk, literally “salt hut”, in 1121, perhaps a place where salt was made.^[7][3] The word itself is first found around 1240 in a Limburg glossary, where salt renders Latin sal.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

In 13th-century texts salt is a commodity and a tax item: a Ghent account of 1280 lists xxv. lb van soutte, “25 pounds of salt”, and a Holland text of 1284 mentions a toll on salt.^[8][3] Digging salt out of the peat is mentioned at Bergen op Zoom in 1300, and the adjective in die soute ze “the salt sea” in 1287.^[8][3] The biblical het zout der aarde “the salt of the earth” appears in a Brabant text of 1291.^[8] In early modern texts a ship arrives from Lisbon laden with spices and salt (1508), and Amsterdam councillors discuss an ordinance on the salt excise (1581).^[2] Chemistry later gave the word its sense of a compound of a metal and an acid radical.^[9][10]

Iets met een korreltje zout nemen “to take something with a grain of salt” imitates the Latin addito salis grano of Pliny, which in its recipe meant literally “adding a grain of salt”.^[11] In Surinamese Dutch zout as an adjective also means unpleasant or unlucky.^[12] Dutch passed the noun to Negerhollands (sout), Berbice Dutch (sautu), Sranan Tongo (sowtu) and Saramaccan (sátu), and it lives on in Afrikaans sout.^[13][1]

Timeline

• 991 – The adjective appears in the West Flemish water name Saltanauua.^[7][3]
• 1121 – The noun appears in the place name Soutkota (Zuidkote).^[7][3]
• c. 1240 – Salt glosses Latin sal in a Limburg glossary.^[8][3]
• 1280 – A Ghent account records 25 pounds of salt.^[3][8]
• 1287 – Die soute ze “the salt sea” is recorded.^[3]
• 1291 – Dat sout van ertrike “the salt of the earth” is recorded in Brabant.^[8]
• 1581 – Amsterdam discusses an ordinance on the salt excise.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. salt, sodium chloride: the white crystalline substance used to season and preserve food.^[9][14][1]
2. (chemistry) A salt: a compound of a metal and an acid radical.^[9][14]

Adjective

1. salty: having the taste of salt, like sea water.^[9][1]
2. salted, preserved in salt.^[9][1]

Word family

• zouten
• zoutheid
• zouteloos
• zoutachtig
• zoutarm
• zoutgehalte
• zouthoudend
• zoutkorrel
• zoutmeer
• keukenzout
• baaizout

Related words

• zilt
• zult
• zulte
• saus
• salaris
• English salt
• German Salz

Usage notes

Attisch zout is witty humour;^[9] zout in het bloed hebben is to be strongly bound to the sea;^[9] geest van zout is an old name for hydrochloric acid.^[9] Zó zout heb ik het nog nooit gegeten is an exclamation of astonishment and indignation.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
4. ^ a b c d e f Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ Haeringen, C. B. van (1936), Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal: Supplement, 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
7. ^ a b c Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org
8. ^ a b c d e f g Pijnenburg, W. J. J., et al. (2001), Vroegmiddelnederlands woordenboek: woordenboek van het Nederlands van de dertiende eeuw in hoofdzaak op basis van het Corpus-Gysseling, Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie; gtb.ivdnt.org
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
10. ^ WikiWoordenboek (Dutch Wiktionary), nl.wiktionary.org
11. ^ Stoett, F. A. (1923–1925), Nederlandsche spreekwoorden, spreekwijzen, uitdrukkingen en gezegden, 4th ed., 3 vols., Zutphen: Thieme
12. ^ Donselaar, J. van (1989), Woordenboek van het Surinaams-Nederlands, Muiderberg: Coutinho
13. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
14. ^ a b Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; anw.ivdnt.org