Salt Words: “cum grano salis” to “soused”English words derived from sal-, sali- (Latin: salt)cum grano salis:
"With a grain of salt." This is said to be one of the most familiar Latin expressions. When one does not fully believe something or someone, cum grano salis, suggests a certain caution or reserve. Salt was a valuable commodity in the ancient world, so a grain of salt is not to be taken as a trivial matter. The English word “salary” is derived from the Latin, salarium, which was the money allotted to Roman soldiers for purchases of salt; hence, their pay.
hypersaline, hypersalinity:
A reference to naturally occurring water that is more salty than that which is typical of sea water.
salad:
Originally, a “salted” dish. The Romans were fond of dishes of assorted raw vegetables with a dressing, and this often consisted of brine; hence, the name which is short for herba salata or “salted vegetables”.
salami:
A large thick highly seasoned sausage which contains a great deal of salt as one of its ingredients.
salary:
Fixed periodic payment for work done. This word comes from Latin salarium, denoting an “allowance given to Roman soldiers for buying salt” which was a valued commodity over which wars were fought.
saliferous:
Used to describe a geological formation that contains or produces a large proportion of salt.
salifiable:
Capable of combining with an acid to form a salt.
salina:
A salt marsh, lake, pond, or spring. From medieval Latin via Spanish meaning “salt pit”.
salination:
The process of salting.
saline:
1. Salty; pertaining to soil or water rich in soluble salts.
2. Containing or impregnated with salt. 3. In biology, a reference to plants and animals that grow in or inhabit salt plains or marshes. salinification:
The action or process of becoming, or causing to become, saline.
salinity:
A measure of the total concentration of dissolved salts in sea water usually measured in parts per thousand.
salinization:
The process by which soluble salts accumulate in soil.
salinize:
To treat or contaminate something with salt.
salinometer, salimeter:
An instrument used to measure the concentration of salt in salt solutions; salinometric, salinometry.
Sal sapit omnia:
"Salt seasons everything." This “salt” refers not to table salt (sodium chloride) but to “sparkling thought well expressed” or to some good conversation when eating.
salt:
A substance, usually in the form of small white crystals (sodium chloride), with a sharp tangy taste that is used to season or preserve food comes to us from Latin sal, which evolved into French sel, Italian sale, Spanish sal, and Romanian sare. It has also contributed an enormous range of vocabulary to English, including salad, salary, saline, sauce, saucer, and sausage. Its Germanic descendant was salt, which produced Swedish, Danish, and English salt, and Dutch zout.
The North American Porcupine and Its Need for SaltThese vegetarians find an ample supply of staple calories from plants. Why are these modest creatures, amply fed on wild bush and tree, regarded as pests? Because they now gnaw and damage much human property near or in the woods. Whatever salty hands have touched, from ax handles to discarded wrappings, becomes the target of their needful gnawing. The most common attraction for porcupines is the plywood in unattended outbuildings. The curing compound used in plywood is sodium nitrate; so porcupines chew deligently at wooden walls for that scant, unseen prize. Control experiments have shown that they seek the sodium ion only, not potassium, or other ions. Two intrinsic systems set animal and plant life apart; namely, the muscles that power locomotion, and the intricate nerve network that controls the organism, including the muscle fibers themselves. Sodium is an indispensable part of nerve and muscle function. Green plants have neither nerves nor muscles; so, lacking these, generally they have little use for sodium, over the long or short term. Except for special saline plants, vegetation has no need for salt; however, they must have sodium’s sister atom, potassium. saltpeter:
Potassium nitrate; used especially as a component of gunpowder or as a food preservative.
Saltpeter is a borrowing of Old Middle English salpetre [about A.D. 1300]; a borrowing of Old French, salpetre, a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin; also borrowed directly from Medieval Latin sal petrae, “salt of rock”; (Latin sal, “salt” + petrae, genitive of Latin petra, “rock”.
saltpetre:
A crust similar to salt that forms on rocks.
sauce:
A thick liquid that is served with food to add extra flavor. It comes from Latin, sal, salt, referring to a “brine dressing or pickle”. This meaning later evolved into Italian and Spanish salsa, and French sauce, from which English gets sauce.
saucer:
This word originally meant “sauceboat”, and was borrowed from Old French saussier, which was a derivative of sauce. The modern application to a “dish for a cup” did not evolve until the 18th century.
sausage:
A seasoned pork or other meat chopped fine and stuffed into a tube of animal intestine or another tube-shaped skin. Originally, it referred to any dish made by “salting”.
silt:
A fine-grained sediment, especially of mud or clay particles at the bottom of a river or lake. It apparently came from a reference to the mud in salt flats by river estuaries and it seems to be etymologically related to “salt”. It was probably borrowed from a Scandinavian word because Danish and Norwegian both have the related sylt, “salt marsh”.
soused:
1. To steep something in vinegar or brine in order to preserve it.
2. Pickled food, especially pork trimmings. 3. Etymologically it means to soak something in “salt”.
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