Salutation comes from Latin salutatio ('a greeting'), from salutare ('to greet, wish health to'), from salus (stem salut-) 'health, well-being'. The historical chain includes Latin salutatio and Latin salus. The quoted older senses, "a greeting", "to greet, wish health to", and "health, well-being", supply the semantic anchors for salutation. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word salutation carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a noun, "a greeting in words or gesture, especially at the start of a letter". English derivatives include salutatory and salutatorian; related English forms include salute and salutary. The result is a noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.