saltcellar

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small container or open dish for holding and serving salt at the table

   Joe hesitated before passing the saltcellar across the table.

A modern reanalysis of Middle English salt-saler, from Old French salier, 'salt container,' ultimately based on Latin sal, 'salt.' Because saler became unfamiliar, speakers associated the second element with the unrelated word cellar, producing salt cellar, salt-cellar, and the closed spelling saltcellar.

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