salada

Forms

salada f (plural saladas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French salade, according to Houaiss, Cunha, Nascentes and the other dictionaries.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The French word, recorded from 1414, was taken from the northern Italian salada and salata, beside standard insalata.^[2][6] These are the feminine past participle, used as a noun, of salare (“to salt”) and insalare, from Late Latin salō, a verb formed on Latin sal (“salt”): a dish of vegetables seasoned with salt.^[2][1]

The Italian word also gave Spanish ensalada, Catalan ensalada and Occitan ensalada, and Old Occitan salada is already recorded in 1333.^[6] Silva Bastos hesitated between a derivation from sal and one from the Spanish word.^[7] The Spanish word was borrowed separately as ensalada, also used for a kind of poem mixing lines of different lengths.^[7][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates the word to before 1587 and Cunha to the 16th century.^[2][3] Cardoso's Portuguese–Latin dictionary of 1569 already lists salada and translates it with Latin acetarium, a dish of raw vegetables dressed with vinegar.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Morais (1813) defines a salad as raw chopped greens such as lettuce or purslane, seasoned with salt, olive oil and vinegar.^[11] He also quotes a figurative use, artillery making huma salada of walls and timber, and the sense of a poem mixing every kind of verse.^[11] Houaiss gives the dish, the vegetable used in it, especially lettuce, the state of something crushed or bruised, and a confused mixture of things.^[2] In Portugal salada is a popular name for lettuce itself.^[12][1] Compounds include salada de frutas “fruit salad” and salada russa “Russian salad”, the latter also used for a muddle.^[2] The word passed into Konkani.^[1]

Timeline

• 1333 – Old Occitan salada.^[6]
• 1414 – French salade.^[6]
• 1569 – Cardoso lists salada.^[10]
• before 1587 – Houaiss's first text record.^[2]
• 1697 – Pereira glosses Salada with acetaria.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais records the figurative “heap of rubble” and the poetic sense.^[11]
• 1858 – first record of saladeira, a salad bowl.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (cooking) A salad: a cold dish of raw or cooked vegetables, sometimes with fish, meat or eggs, dressed with oil, vinegar and salt: Ao jantar comemos uma salada de tomate.^[2][15][1]
2. Any vegetable used in a salad, especially lettuce (alface); in Portugal, popularly, lettuce itself.^[2][12][1]
3. (figurative) The state of something crushed, bruised or beaten.^[2][15]
4. (figurative, informal) A jumble of different things; a mess.^[2][16][1]

Word family

• saladeira

Related words

• ensalada
• sal
• salgar
• French salade
• Italian insalata

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. salada
3. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. salada
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. salada
5. ^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. salada
6. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. salade
7. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. salada
8. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. ensalada
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. ensalada
10. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. salada
11. ^ a b c Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 658
12. ^ a b Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 8245
13. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. salada
14. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. saladeira
15. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. salada
16. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. salada