salt

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A white substance used to add flavour to food and to preserve it.

   Could you pass me the salt for my chips?

2. 2
   verb

   To add salt to food.

   Remember to salt the water before boiling the pasta.

3. 3
   verb

   To preserve food by treating it with salt.

   Sailors used to salt meat so it would last on long voyages.

4. 4
   noun

   An experienced sailor (often "old salt").

   The old salt told us stories of his years at sea.

PIE word *sḗh₂l From Middle English salt, from Old English sealt, from Proto-West Germanic *salt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *sḗh₂l (“salt”). Doublet of sal, salary, and salsa, all ultimately from Latin sāl (“salt”), which it superseded as the general term for "salt".

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