salt
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: sŏlt
enpr: sôlt
ipa: /sɒlt/
ipa: /sɔːlt/
enpr: sôlt
ipa: /sɔlt/
enpr: sält
ipa: /sɑlt/
ipa: [sɑɫt]
ipa: [sɑɫʔ]
enpr: sŏlt
ipa: /sɔlt/
ipa: [sɔɯ̯t]
rhymes: -ɒlt
rhymes: -ɔːlt
Forms: form: salts
Etymology: PIE word
 *séh₂ls
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 Doublet of sal, ultimately from Latin sāl (“salt”), which it superseded as the general term for "salt".
Senses: examples: text: Near-synonyms: table salt, rock salt, road salt
text: Take gode almaunde mylke y-draw wyth wyn, an let hem boyle to-gederys, an caste þer-to Safroun an Salt; […]
ref: 1430, Thomas Austin, editor, 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), volume 1, London: Routledge; N. Trübner & Co., published 1888, →OCLC, page 11:
english: Take good almond milk made with wine, and let it boil together, and add thereto Saffron and Salt; […]
translation: Take good almond milk made with wine, and let it boil together, and add thereto Saffron and Salt; […]
bold_translation_offsets: 92
96
text: Common salt, chloride of sodium, appears to be essential to the life of the higher animals.
ref: 1880, Arthur Herbert Church, Food: Some Account of Its Sources, Constituents and Uses, London: Chapman and Hall, page 24:
text: Nando was pierced with grief, but he didn't allow himself to cry. Tears, he knew, would cost his body salt. Without salt, you die.
ref: 2013, Bear Grylls, True Grit: the Epic True Stories of Heroism and Survival That Have Shaped My Life, →ISBN, page 9:
text: Here’s a grocery list of foods Chestnut has eaten competitively, drawn from his Major League Eating bio: apple pie, asparagus, boysenberry pie, brats, burritos, chicken spiedies (a kind of sandwich), chicken wings, chili, corned beef sandwiches, eggs, fish tacos, funnel cake, grilled cheese sandwiches, gyoza, Krystal hamburgers, horseshoe sandwiches, hot dogs, ice cream, jalapeno poppers, kolaches, pastrami sandwiches, Philly cheesesteaks, pierogi, pizza, pork ribs, pulled pork, poutine, salt potatoes, shrimp, tacos, tamales, turkey and Twinkies.
ref: 2015 July 2, Michael Pearson, “6 things to know about hot dog king Joey Chestnut”, in CNN:
synonyms: common salt
glosses: A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a food ingredient, seasoning, condiment, and preservative.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.
glosses: A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.
examples: text: Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts.
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter:
text: 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.
ref: 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:
glosses: A sailor (also old salt).
topics: computing
cryptography
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A sequence of random data added to plain text data (such as passwords or messages) prior to encryption or hashing, in order to make brute force decryption more difficult.
glosses: A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.
examples: text: Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen […] we have some salt of our youth in us.
ref: c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
glosses: Flavour; taste; seasoning.
examples: Attic salt
glosses: Piquancy; wit; sense.
examples: text: I out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts.
ref: 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:
glosses: A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar.
glosses: Epsom salts or other salt used as a medicine.
examples: text: Any politician's statements must be taken with a grain of salt, but his need to be taken with a whole shaker of salt.
glosses: Skepticism and common sense.
examples: text: There was so much salt in that thread about the poor casting decision.
glosses: Tears; indignation; outrage; arguing.
glosses: The money demanded by Eton schoolboys during the montem.
Synonyms: word: sal
Derived terms: add salt to injury
antisalt
besalted
bisalt
black salt
blacksalter
bread and salt
cerebral salt-wasting syndrome
desalt
hydrosalt
kitchen salt
lay salt on someone's tail
nonsalt
oversalt
oxysalt
pepper and salt
persalt
polysalt
protosalt
resalt
salt and chilli chips
salt and pepper chips
saltbox
saltbush
saltcat
salt cave
Salt Coates
salt coffee
salt daddy
saltery
saltfish
saltfoot
Saltford
salt-free
saltfree
saltgrass
saltie
saltine
saltish
salt lamp
saltless
saltlike
saltly
saltmaker
saltmaking
salt marsh elder
saltmouth
salt-myrtle
salt myrtle
salt of wisdom
saltproof
salt stick
salt tectonics
salt water aspiration syndrome
saltweed
saltwork
saltworker
saltworks
saltwort
salty
sesquisalt
subsalt
sulfosalt
sulphosalt
supersalt
above the salt
acid of salt
amphid salt
Attic salt
baker's salt
bath salt
bay salt
below the salt
bile salt
bronzing salt
butter salt
cat-salt
celery salt
chicken salt
common salt
covenant of salt
diazonium salt
dishwasher salt
double salt
dry-salt
Epsom salt(s)
essential salt
flake salt
Frémy's salt
fruit salt
garlic salt
Glaser's salt
Glauber's salt
Great Salt Lake
green salt
green salt of Magnus
hair-salt
hair salt
hartshorn salt
hei hei salt
Himalayan salt
horse salt
inner salt
koshering salt
kosher salt
Magnus' green salt
Meerwein's salt
microcosmic salt
mineral salt
mixed salt
Monsel's salt
not worth salt
organic salt
pepper-and-salt
pinch of salt
pink salt
please pass the salt
polychrest salt
pound salt
pre-salt layer
prunella salt
put salt on someone's tail
road salt
Rochelle salt
rock salt
rub salt in someone's wounds
rub salt in the wound
salt acid
salt and pepper
salt-and-pepper
salt-and-pepper doris
salt beef
salt bottom
salt box
salt bridge
salt cake
salt cedar
saltcellar
salt-cellar
salt chuck
salt clay
salt cod
Salt Creek
salt dome
salt dough
salt-effect distillation
salt flat
salt garden
salt glacier
salt gland
salt glaze
salt grass
salt-green
salt hay
Salt Hill
salt horse
salt in the wound
salt junk
salt lake → Salt Lake City
Salt Lake County
salt lick
salt line
salt marsh
salt-marsh caterpillar
salt marsh hay
salt-marsh terrapin
salt meat
salt mine
salt of amber
salt of colcothar
salt of hartshorn
salt of lemon
salt of Saturn
salt of soda
salt of sorrel
salt of tartar
salt of the earth
salt of tin
salt of Venus
salt of vitriol
salt of wormwood
salt out
salt pan
salt pig
salt pork
salt rheum
salt-rising bread
Salt River
salt sea
Salt Sea
salt sedative
salt shaker
salt spoon
saltspoon
salt spray test
salt substitute
salt the mine
salt tree
salt truck
salt water
salt-water
saltwater
salt water taffy
salt wedge
salt works
Schlippe's salt
sea salt
sedative salt
sell salt to a slug
smelling salt
spirit of salt
spirits of salt
sulfur salt
sulphur salt
syntactic salt
table salt
take with a pinch of salt
throw salt
Tutton's salt
white salt
with all the salt in the Dead Sea
worth one's salt
worth one's weight in salt
take bread and salt Compound words and expressions
Related terms: salary
salad