salty
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
Etymology: PIE word
 *sḗh₂l
From Middle English salti, equivalent to salt + -y.
Compare Saterland Frisian soaltig (“salty”), West Frisian sâltich (“salty”), Dutch zoutig (“salty”), German Low German soltig (“salty”), German salzig (“salty”).
(coarse; irritated, annoyed): Referencing the sharp, 'spicy' flavor of salt.
(indignant): Perhaps implying the person is a crybaby, shedding salty tears, or derived from the preceding.
Base: salt
Affixes: -y
Inflected forms:
form: saltier
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: saltiest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Tasting of salt.
pos: adj
examples: A few types of molecules get sensed by receptors on the tongue. Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.
gloss: Containing salt.
pos: adj
examples: At Zipaquirá, the salty ore is taken from the mine in chunks, then thrown into large tanks of water, where the salt is dissolved out. The resulting brine is drawn off into pipelines, containers, or tank trucks and sold […]
My job was to couple the dumpers, full or empty, then uncouple them at the main shaft, and to open and close the weather door on the trip to the roof galleries, where the salty ore was dynamited and broken down.
gloss: Coarse; provocative; earthy.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: In the following piece she has some characteristically salty things to say about what happens when law and medicine meet.
(In characteristically salty fashion, Sara admits: “I was no doubt a horrible little bitch" at this age.)
The court might have been tempted to construe the First Amendment as too momentous — too consequential — to vindicate a disappointed teenager’s salty outburst after being cut from the varsity cheer squad.
Sometimes hosts are a little saltier when the cameras aren’t rolling, but I don’t recall ever hearing any daylight between the views they express on-air and off.
gloss: Experienced, especially used to indicate a veteran of the naval services; salty dog (from salt of the sea).
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: There's a sailor's tavern at the end of the street where I could find companionship if I chose (one catches salty boys going in and out at any hour) but only music matters to me now.
Plus bits of business involving a salty Russian seafarer and overflying warplanes.
gloss: Irritated, annoyed, angry, bitter.
pos: adj
tags: slang
examples: Ray and Fuzzy were salty with our unhip no-playing piano player, because she broke time on the piano so bad that the strings yelled whoa to the hammers.
I want to beg your pardon for making you salty that night.
Misery can make you blame everybody else for your salty attitude. You think people just don't get where you're coming from. How can so many people be so stupid, you think. Well, your misery is very likely self-inflicted.
"I regret being salty and bitchy towards you most of the time. Yesterday's offence is unforgivable, but can you forgive me for the day-to-day bickering in the past?” “Would you even care? Especially if you had not been caught outright[…]"
gloss: Pertaining to the Sardinian language and those dialects of Catalan, spoken in the Balearic Islands and along the coast of Catalonia, that use definitive articles descended from the Latin ipse (“self”) instead of the Latin ille (“that”).
pos: adj
Synonyms: haline
saline
salt
salty
Antonyms: nonsaline
nonsalt
nonsalty
unsalty
Related words: sea-salty
saltiness
Derived words: nonsalty
oversalty
saltyish
supersalty
unsalty
jump salty
salty tooth
saltily
saltiness
Translations: