salty English · revision 39907

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 1440, Promptorium Parvulorum}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * UK: /ˈsɒlti/, /ˈsɔːlti/^(Wiktionary)

+ * US: /ˈsɔlti/, /sɑlti/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It was formed [[af|en|salt|-y]] in late Middle English, from the noun.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024)^(SOED 2002)^(Dictionary.com 2016)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Containing salt or tasting of salt: about 1440, in the ''Promptorium Parvulorum'',^(OED 2026) the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The figurative senses come from ''salt'' as that which gives life or pungency, used of words and wit from the 1570s:^(Etymonline) ''salty'' meant piquant or racy from 1866.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) In 20th-century American slang it meant first, of a sailor, tough and aggressive (1920, in the US Navy), and then angry or irritated;^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) the OED dates the latter to 1938, with the phrase ''jump salty'', to become suddenly angry,^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) and Green's Dictionary of Slang has examples of related uses from 1925 and 1936.^(GDoS) Green notes a suggestion linking the sense with a dialect ''salty'' used of a bitch in heat,^(GDoS) a separate adjective, from ''salt'' in the sense "lecherous", recorded from 1603 to 1896.^(OED 2026)^(Wright 1898) In Scotland and the north of England the word was pronounced ''sauty'' or ''sawty'', and a ''sautie bannock'' was an oatmeal cake baked on Shrove Tuesday.^(Wright 1898) In North America a ''saltie'' or ''salty'' is an ocean-going ship on the Great Lakes, recorded from 1959.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1440 – tasting of or containing salt.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1866 – piquant, racy.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1920 – (US nautical slang) of a sailor, tough, aggressive.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1925 – (US slang) irritated, sour.^(GDoS)

+ * 1938 – angry, and the phrase ''jump salty''.^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)

+ * 1959 – (North America) a seagoing ship.^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Containing, tasting of or seasoned with [[salt]]: ''The soup was far too salty.''^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # Having the flavour of the [[sea]] or of life at sea.^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # Of talk or humour, sharp, earthy or [[racy]]; [[piquant]].^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # (US, informal) [[bitter|alt=Bitter]], [[resentful]] or annoyed: ''Don't get salty with me.''^(Collins 2023)^(OED 2026)^(GDoS)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[saltily]]

+ * [[saltiness]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[salt]]

+ * [[saline]]

+ * [[briny]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}