salt

From Middle English salt, from Old English sealt, from Proto-West Germanic *salt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂ls (“salt”). Doublet of sal, ultimately from Latin sāl (“salt”), which it superseded as the general term for "salt".

• (UK) enPR: sŏlt, IPA^(key): /sɒlt/
  • (Conservative RP) enPR: sôlt, IPA^(key): /sɔːlt/
• (US) enPR: sôlt, IPA^(key): /sɔlt/
  • (cot–caught merger) enPR: sält, IPA^(key): /sɑlt/, [sɑɫt], [sɑɫʔ]
• (New Zealand) enPR: sŏlt, IPA^(key): /sɔlt/, [sɔɯ̯t]

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: (UK) -ɒlt, (Conservative RP, US, New Zealand) -ɔːlt, (cot-caught merger) -ɑlt

Salt crystals

salt (countable and uncountable, plural salts)

1. A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a condiment and preservative.
   • c. 1430 (reprinted 1888), Thomas Austin, ed., Two Fifteenth-century Cookery-books. Harleian ms. 279 (ab. 1430), & Harl. ms. 4016 (ab. 1450), with Extracts from Ashmole ms. 1429, Laud ms. 553, & Douce ms. 55 [Early English Text Society, Original Series; 91], London: N. Trübner & Co. for the Early English Text Society, volume I, OCLC 374760, page 11:

     Soupes dorye. — Take gode almaunde mylke […] caste þher-to Safroun an Salt […]

2. (chemistry) One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.
3. (uncommon) A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.
4. (slang) A sailor (also old salt).
   • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter:

     Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 1”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:

     I never go as a passenger; nor, though I am something of a salt, do I ever go to sea as a Commodore, or a Captain, or a Cook.

5. (cryptography) Randomly chosen bytes added to a plaintext message prior to encrypting or hashing it, in order to render brute-force decryption more difficult.
6. A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.
7. (obsolete) Flavour; taste; seasoning.
   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry VViues of VVindsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene iii]:

     Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen […] we have some salt of our youth in us.

8. (obsolete) Piquancy; wit; sense.

   Attic salt

9. (obsolete) A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar.
   • 1664 September 19 (date written; Gregorian calendar)​, Samuel Pepys; Mynors Bright, transcriber, “September 9th, 1664”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume IV, London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1894, OCLC 1016700617:

     I out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts.

10. (historical, in the plural) Epsom salts or other salt used as a medicine.
11. (figurative) Skepticism and common sense.

    Any politician's statements must be taken with a grain of salt, but his need to be taken with a whole shaker of salt.

12. (Internet slang) Tears; indignation; outrage; arguing.

    There was so much salt in that thread about the poor casting decision.

13. (UK, historical) The money demanded by Eton schoolboys during the montem.

• sal (obsolete)

• salary

• Bislama: sol
• Tok Pisin: sol

salt (comparative more salt, superlative most salt)

1. Salty; salted.

   salt beef;  salt tears

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     Philander went into the next room […] and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.

2. Saline.

   a salt marsh;  salt grass

3. Related to salt deposits, excavation, processing or use.

   a salt mine

   The salt factory is a key connecting element in the seawater infrastructure.

4. (figurative, obsolete) Bitter; sharp; pungent.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iv]:

     I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me;

5. (figurative, obsolete) Salacious; lecherous; lustful; (of animals) in heat.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iii]:

     It is impossible you should see this, / Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, / As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross / As ignorance made drunk.

   • (Can we date this quote by Urquhart and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?) (translator), The First Book of the works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, Book 2, Chapter 22, p. 153,

     And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their accesse to her, and every way keeping such a coyle with her, as they are wont to do about a proud or salt bitch, he forthwith departed […]

6. (colloquial, archaic) Costly; expensive.

• saltness
• salt spray

salt (third-person singular simple present salts, present participle salting, simple past and past participle salted)

1. (transitive) To add salt to.

   to salt fish, beef, or pork; to salt the city streets in the winter

2. (intransitive) To deposit salt as a saline solution.

   The brine begins to salt.

3. (nautical, of a ship) To fill with salt between the timbers and planks for the preservation of the timber.
4. To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.
   1. (mining) To blast metal into (as a portion of a mine) in order to cause to appear to be a productive seam.
   2. (archaeology) To add bogus evidence to an archaeological site.
   3. (transitive) To add certain chemical elements to (a nuclear weapon) so that it generates more radiation.
      • 1964, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (page 417)

        The composition of the fallout can also be changed by "salting" the weapon to be detonated. This consists in the inclusion of significant quantities of certain elements, possibly enriched in specific isotopes, for the purpose of producing induced radioactivity. There are several reasons why a weapon might be salted.

5. (transitive) To sprinkle throughout.

   They salted the document with arcane language.

   • 1993, The Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy (page 154)

     These were pamphlets, often written in various Jewish vernaculars, describing the location of the Holy sites and salting the accounts with mythic and homiletical materials.

6. (cryptography) To add filler bytes before encrypting, in order to make brute-force decryption more resource-intensive.
7. To render a thing useless.
   1. (military, transitive) To sow with salt (of land), symbolizing a curse on its re-inhabitation.

      In this place were put to the ground and salted the houses of José Mascarenhas.

   2. (wiki) To lock a page title so it cannot be created.

• (add salt): desalt

• desalt
• salt away
• salt the earth

Borrowed from Latin saltus.

salt (plural salts)

1. (obsolete) A bounding; a leaping; a prance.
   • 1616, Ben Jonson, The Devil Is an Ass, in Gifford’s 1816 edition volume V page 67

     […] he hath the skill to draw
     Their nectar forth, with kissing; and could make
     More wanton salts from this brave promontory,
     Down to this valley, than the nimble roe;

• Alts, LTAs, TLAs, alts, last, lats, slat

From Old Catalan salt, from Latin saltus.

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈsalt/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /ˈsal/

• Audio

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salt m (plural salts)

1. jump
2. waterfall

• salt de perxa
• saltiró

• saltar

• “salt” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “salt” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂l-.

salt

1. salt
   • 1562, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq:

     Salt. Sal.

salt

1. genitive plural of salto

From Old Norse saltr (“salt”), from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

• IPA^(key): /salˀd/, [sælˀd̥], [sælˀt]

salt

1. salty, salt

From Old Norse salt (akin to Old Saxon salt, Old High German salz, Old Dutch salt, Old English sealt), from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls. Compare Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish salt.

• IPA^(key): /salˀt/, [sæ̝lˀt]

salt n (singular definite saltet, plural indefinite salte)

1. salt

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

salt

1. imperative of salte

• salte
• mineralsalt

• IPA^(key): [sal̥t]

From Old Norse salt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

salt n (genitive singular salts, plural sølt)

1. salt

• pipar
• edikur
• sinnopur
• olivinolja
• epli
• pannukøka
• rosina
• sukur
• drúvusukur
• vaniljusukur
• súltusukur
• siropur

From Old Norse saltr (“salt”), from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

salt

1. salty

From Latin saltus.

salt m (plural salts)

1. jump, leap, spring

• saltâ

salt

1. Romanization of 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐍄

From Old Norse salt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

• IPA^(key): /sal̥t/

• listen

  (file)

• Rhymes: -al̥t

salt n (genitive singular salts, nominative plural sölt)

1. salt

   Geturðu rétt mér saltið?

   Can you pass me the salt?

• salta
• saltstaukur
• saltsýra
• vega salt

salt

1. positive degree neuter singular nominative/accusative of saltur

From Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“cold; hot”). Cognates include Lithuanian šálti.

salt (intr., 1st conj., pres. salstu, salsti, salst, past salu)

1. to freeze

• selt, sealt, salte, zalt, saulte, sawt, scealte

From Old English sealt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą (noun) and Proto-Germanic *saltaz (adjective).

• IPA^(key): /salt/, /sɛlt/

salt (uncountable)

1. salt (sodium chloride)
2. Something containing or for storing salt
3. Any of a group of crystalline compounds that resemble salt

• salten
• salthous

• English: salt
• Scots: sawt, salt, saut
• Yola: zall

• “salt, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-08.

salt (plural and weak singular salte, comparative salter, superlative saltest)

1. salty, tasting of salt
2. salted, coated in salt

• English: salt
• Scots: sawt, salt, saut

• “salt, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-08.

From Old Norse saltr.

salt (neuter singular salt, definite singular and plural salte, comparative saltere, indefinite superlative saltest, definite superlative salteste)

1. salty, salt, salted

   salte peanøtter - salted peanuts

From Old Norse salt (akin to Old Saxon salt, Old High German salz, Old Dutch salt, Old English sealt), from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls. Compare Danish, Swedish and Icelandic salt.

salt n (definite singular saltet, indefinite plural salter, definite plural salta or saltene)

1. salt

salt

1. imperative of salte

• “salt” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /sɑlt/

From Old Norse saltr.

salt (neuter singular salt, definite singular and plural salte, comparative saltare, indefinite superlative saltast, definite superlative saltaste)

1. salty, salt, salted

From Old Norse salt (akin to Old Saxon salt, Old High German salz, Old Dutch salt, Old English sealt), from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls.

salt n (definite singular saltet, indefinite plural salt, definite plural salta)

1. salt

• “salt” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Old Norse salt.

salt n

1. salt

• Danish: salt

From Old Norse saltr.

salt

1. salty, salt

• Danish: salt

From Proto-Germanic *saltą (“salt”), *saltaz (“salty, salted”).

salt n

1. salt

• North Frisian: saalt
• Saterland Frisian: Soalt, Saalt
• West Frisian: sâlt

salt

1. salty, salted

• West Frisian: sâlt

From Proto-Germanic *saltą.

salt n

1. salt

• salta (“to salt”)
• saltr (“salty”)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

salt

1. strong neuter nominative/accusative singular of saltr (“salty”)

• “salt”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

From Latin saltus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsalt/

salt n (plural salturi)

1. leap
2. saltation

• sălta
• săltare
• săltat
• săltăreț
• săltător
• săltătură

salt

1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of sălta

• IPA^(key): /salt/

• audio

  (file)

From Old Swedish salter, from Old Norse saltr, from Proto-Germanic *saltaz, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

salt (comparative saltare, superlative saltast)

1. salty

From Old Swedish salt, from Old Norse salt (akin to Old Saxon salt, Old High German salz, Old Dutch salt, Old English sealt), from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls. Compare Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian salt.

salt n

1. salt
   1. (uncountable) sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a condiment and preservative.
   2. (chemistry) One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.

• bordssalt

• bergsalt
• havssalt
• medelhavssalt
• saltlake
• saltkristall
• saltstänkt
• saltsyra

• salta
• sälta

• last, lats, stal, tals

From Proto-Turkic *sal- (“to unleash”).

• IPA^(key): /saɫt/

salt

1. exclusively, only, just, absolute

   salt çoğunluk

   absolute majority

• bir
• sadece
• sırf
• tek
• yalnız
• (absolute) mutlak

• salmak

• salt in Turkish dictionaries at Türk Dil Kurumu