Wiktionary

salt

See also: Salt, SALT, sâlt, sålt, and -salt

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology 1

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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 Doublet of sal, ultimately from Latin sāl (“salt”), which it superseded as the general term for "salt".

Pronunciation

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Salt crystals

Noun

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salt (countable and uncountable, plural salts)

  2. A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a condiment and preservative.
    • 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:
      Take gode almaunde mylke y-draw wyth wyn, an let hem boyle to-gederys, an caste þer-to Safroun an Salt; […]
      Take good almond milk made with wine, and let it boil together, and add thereto Saffron and Salt; […]
    • 1880, Arthur Herbert Church, Food: Some Account of Its Sources, Constituents and Uses‎[1], London: Chapman and Hall, page 24:
      Common salt, chloride of sodium, appears to be essential to the life of the higher animals.
    • 2013, Bear Grylls, True Grit: the Epic True Stories of Heroism and Survival That Have Shaped My Life, →ISBN, page 9:
      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.
  4. (chemistry) One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.
  5. (uncommon, countable) A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea.
  6. (slang, countable) A sailor (also old salt).
    • 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter:
      Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts.
    • 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:
      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.
  7. (cryptography) 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.
  8. A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it.
  9. (obsolete, uncountable) Flavour; taste; seasoning.
  10. (obsolete, uncountable) Piquancy; wit; sense.
    Attic salt
  11. (obsolete, countable) A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar.
  12. (historical, in the plural) Epsom salts or other salt used as a medicine.
  13. (figurative, uncountable) Skepticism and common sense.
    Any politician's statements must be taken with a grain of salt, but his need to be taken with a whole shaker of salt.
  15. (Internet slang, uncountable) Tears; indignation; outrage; arguing.
    There was so much salt in that thread about the poor casting decision.
  16. (UK, historical, uncountable) The money demanded by Eton schoolboys during the montem.
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Compound words and expressions
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Descendants
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  • Bislama: sol
  • Tok Pisin: sol
Translations
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See salt/translations § Noun.

Adjective

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salt (comparative more salt, superlative most salt)

  1. Of water: containing salt, saline.
    Why the Sea is Salt
    • 1874, Marcus Clarke, For the Term of His Natural Life, Penguin, published 2009, page 97:
      After a few days of north-west wind, the waters of the Gordon will be found salt for twelve miles up from the bar.
  2. Treated with salt as a preservative; cured with salt, salted.
    salt beef
  3. Of land, fields etc.: flooded by the sea.
    a salt marsh
  4. Of plants: growing in the sea or on land flooded by the sea.
    salt grass
  5. Related to salt deposits, excavation, processing or use.
    a salt mine
    The salt factory is a key connecting element in the seawater infrastructure.
  6. (figurative, obsolete) Bitter; sharp; pungent.
  7. (figurative, obsolete) Salacious; lecherous; lustful; (of animals) in heat.
    • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
      It is impossible you should see this, / Were they as prime as goats, as hot as monkeys, / As salt as wolves in pride, and fools as gross / As ignorance made drunk.
    • 1653, Thomas Urquhart, transl., The First Book of the works of Mr. Francis Rabelais‎[2], Book 2, Chapter 22, p. 153:
      And when he saw that all the dogs were flocking about her, yarring at the retardment of their accesse to her, and every way keeping such a coyle with her, as they are wont to do about a proud or salt bitch, he forthwith departed […]
  8. (colloquial, archaic) Costly; expensive.
Derived terms
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

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salt (third-person singular simple present salts, present participle salting, simple past and past participle salted)

  1. (transitive) To add salt to.
    to salt fish, beef, or pork; to salt the city streets in the winter
  2. (intransitive) To deposit salt as a saline solution.
    The brine begins to salt.
  3. (nautical, of a ship) To fill with salt between the timbers and planks for the preservation of the timber.
  4. To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have.
    1. (mining) To blast metal into (as a portion of a mine) in order to cause to appear to be a productive seam.
    2. (archaeology) To add bogus evidence to an archaeological site.
    3. (transitive) To add certain chemical elements to (a nuclear or conventional weapon) so that it generates more radiation.
      • 1964, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, page 417:
        The composition of the fallout can also be changed by "salting" the weapon to be detonated. This consists in the inclusion of significant quantities of certain elements, possibly enriched in specific isotopes, for the purpose of producing induced radioactivity. There are several reasons why a weapon might be salted.
  5. (transitive) To sprinkle throughout.
    • 1976 December 11, Ronnie Allen, “No Political Eunuch”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 24, page 4:
      The Libertarians wish we had won the Vietnamese War, they would like to revoke civil rights legislation, they believe (even though they are supposedly anti-state) in a stronger Pentagon. They are salted with Nixonites, Young Americans for Freedom, John Birchers, Reaganites — in other words the old Joe McCarthy gang again. I thought they had left us, or reformed, or taken up knitting.
    They salted the document with arcane language.
    • 1993, The Journal of Jewish Thought & Philosophy, page 154:
      These were pamphlets, often written in various Jewish vernaculars, describing the location of the Holy sites and salting the accounts with mythic and homiletical materials.
  6. (cryptography) To add filler bytes before encrypting, in order to make brute-force decryption more resource-intensive.
  7. To render a thing useless.
    1. (military, transitive) To sow with salt (of land), symbolizing a curse on its re-inhabitation.
      In this place were put to the ground and salted the houses of José Mascarenhas.
    2. (wiki jargon) To lock a page title so it cannot be created.
Antonyms
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  • (antonym(s) of “add salt”): desalt
Derived terms
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

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Borrowed from Latin saltus.

Noun

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salt (plural salts)

  1. (obsolete) A bounding; a leaping; a prance.
    • 1616, Ben Jonson, The Devil Is an Ass, in Gifford’s 1816 edition volume V page 67
      […] he hath the skill to draw
      Their nectar forth, with kissing; and could make
      More wanton salts from this brave promontory,
      Down to this valley, than the nimble roe;

Anagrams

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old Catalan salt, from Latin saltus.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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salt m (plural salts)

  1. jump
  2. waterfall

Derived terms

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References

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  • “salt” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
  • “salt” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Crimean Gothic

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Etymology

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From Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂l-.

Noun

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salt

  1. salt
    • 1562, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq:
      Salt. Sal.

Czech

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Noun

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salt

  1. genitive plural of salto

Danish

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Etymology 1

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From Old Norse saltr (“salt”), from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /salˀd/, [sælˀd̥], [sælˀt]

Adjective

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salt

  1. salty, salt
Inflection
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Inflection of salt
positive comparative superlative
indefinite common singular salt saltere saltest2
indefinite neuter singular salt saltere saltest2
plural salte saltere saltest2
definite attributive1 salte saltere salteste

1 When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite,
the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
2 The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Etymology 2

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From Old Norse salt (akin to Old Saxon salt, Old High German salz, Old Dutch salt, Old English sealt), from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls. Compare Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish salt.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /salˀt/, [sæ̝lˀt]

Noun

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salt n (singular definite saltet, plural indefinite salte)

  1. salt
Inflection
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Declension of salt
neuter
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative salt saltet salte saltene
genitive salts saltets saltes saltenes

Etymology 3

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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salt

  1. imperative of salte
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Faroese

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salt

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Old Norse salt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

Noun

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salt n (genitive singular salts, plural sølt)

  1. salt
Declension
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n5 singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative salt saltið sølt søltini
accusative salt saltið sølt søltini
dative salti saltinum søltum søltunum
genitive salts saltsins salta saltanna
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Etymology 2

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From Old Norse saltr (“salt”), from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

Adjective

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salt

  1. salty
Declension
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Declension of salt (a21)
Singular Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative saltur sølt salt
Accusative saltan salta salt
Dative søltum saltari søltum
Genitive salts saltar/
saltrar 		salts
Plural Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nominative saltir saltar sølt
Accusative saltar saltar sølt
Dative søltum søltum søltum
Genitive salta
saltra 		salta
saltra 		salta
saltra

Friulian

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Etymology

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From Latin saltus.

Noun

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salt m (plural salts)

  1. jump, leap, spring
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Gothic

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Romanization

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salt

  1. Romanization of 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐍄

Icelandic

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Etymology

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From Old Norse salt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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salt n (genitive singular salts, nominative plural sölt)

  1. salt
    Geturðu rétt mér saltið?
    Can you pass me the salt?

Declension

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Declension of salt (neuter)
singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative salt saltið sölt söltin
accusative salt saltið sölt söltin
dative salti saltinu söltum söltunum
genitive salts saltsins salta saltanna

Derived terms

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Adjective

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salt

  1. positive degree neuter singular nominative/accusative of saltur

Latvian

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Etymology

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From Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“cold; hot”). Cognates include Lithuanian šálti.

Pronunciation

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  This entry needs an audio pronunciation. If you are a native speaker with a microphone, please record this word. The recorded pronunciation will appear here when it's ready.

Verb

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salt (intransitive, 1st conjugation, present salstu, salsti, salst, past salu)

  1. to freeze

Conjugation

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conjugation of salt
INDICATIVE (īstenības izteiksme) IMPERATIVE
(pavēles izteiksme)
Present
(tagadne) 		Past
(pagātne) 		Future
(nākotne)
1st pers. sg. es salstu salu salšu —
2nd pers. sg. tu salsti sali salsi salsti
3rd pers. sg. viņš, viņa salst sala sals lai salst
1st pers. pl. mēs salstam salām salsim salsim
2nd pers. pl. jūs salstat salāt salsiet,
salsit 		salstiet
3rd pers. pl. viņi, viņas salst sala sals lai salst
RENARRATIVE (atstāstījuma izteiksme) PARTICIPLES (divdabji)
Present salstot Present Active 1 (Adj.) salstošs
Past esot salis Present Active 2 (Adv.) saldams
Future salšot Present Active 3 (Adv.) salstot
Imperative lai salstot Present Active 4 (Obj.) salstam
CONDITIONAL (vēlējuma izteiksme) Past Active salis
Present saltu Present Passive salstams
Past būtu salis Past Passive salts
DEBITIVE (vajadzības izteiksme) NOMINAL FORMS
Indicative (būt) jāsalst Infinitive (nenoteiksme) salt
Conjunctive 1 esot jāsalst Negative Infinitive nesalt
Conjunctive 2 jāsalstot Verbal noun salšana

Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old English sealt, from Proto-West Germanic *salt, from Proto-Germanic *saltą (noun) and Proto-Germanic *saltaz (adjective).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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salt (uncountable)

  1. salt (sodium chloride)
  2. Something containing or for storing salt
  3. Any of a group of crystalline compounds that resemble salt
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Descendants

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References

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Adjective

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salt (plural and weak singular salte, comparative salter, superlative saltest)

  1. salty, tasting of salt
  2. salted, coated in salt

Descendants

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References

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Norwegian Bokmål

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Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Pronunciation

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  This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

Etymology 1

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From Old Norse saltr.

Adjective

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salt (neuter singular salt, definite singular and plural salte, comparative saltere, indefinite superlative saltest, definite superlative salteste)

  1. salty, salt, salted
    salte peanøtter - salted peanuts

Etymology 2

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From Old Norse salt (akin to Old Saxon salt, Old High German salz, Old Dutch salt, Old English sealt), from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls. Compare Danish, Swedish and Icelandic salt.

Noun

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salt n (definite singular saltet, indefinite plural salter, definite plural salta or saltene)

  1. salt

Etymology 3

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Verb

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salt

  1. imperative of salte

Derived terms

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References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Old Norse saltr.

Adjective

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salt (neuter singular salt, definite singular and plural salte, comparative saltare, indefinite superlative saltast, definite superlative saltaste)

  1. salty, salt, salted

Etymology 2

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From Old Norse salt (akin to Old Saxon salt, Old High German salz, Old Dutch salt, Old English sealt), from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls.

Noun

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salt n (definite singular saltet, indefinite plural salt, definite plural salta)

  1. salt

Derived terms

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References

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Old Danish

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Etymology 1

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From Old Norse salt.

Noun

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salt n

  1. salt
Descendants
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Etymology 2

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From Old Norse saltr.

Adjective

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salt

  1. salty, salt
Descendants
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Old Frisian

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Etymology

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From Proto-Germanic *saltą (“salt”), *saltaz (“salty, salted”).

Noun

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salt n

  1. salt

Inflection

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Declension of salt (neuter a-stem)
singular plural
nominative salt salt
accusative salt salt
genitive saltes salta
dative salte saltum, saltem

Descendants

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Adjective

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salt

  1. salty, salted

Descendants

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Old Norse

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Etymology 1

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From Proto-Germanic *saltą.

Noun

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salt n

  1. salt
Declension
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  Declension of salt (strong a-stem)
neuter singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative salt saltit sǫlt sǫltin
accusative salt saltit sǫlt sǫltin
dative salti saltinu sǫltum sǫltunum
genitive salts saltsins salta saltanna
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Descendants
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Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Adjective

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salt

  1. strong neuter nominative/accusative singular of saltr (“salty”)

References

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  • “salt”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press

Old Swedish

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Etymology

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From Old Norse salt.

Noun

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salt n

  1. salt

Declension

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Declension of salt (strong a-stem)
neuter singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative salt saltit salt saltin
accusative salt saltit salt saltin
dative salti, salte saltinu, salteno saltum, saltom saltumin, saltomen
genitive salts saltsins salta saltanna

Descendants

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Inherited from Latin saltus.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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salt n (plural salturi)

  1. leap
  2. saltation

Declension

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singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative salt saltul salturi salturile
genitive-dative salt saltului salturi salturilor
vocative saltule salturilor
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Verb

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salt

  1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of sălta

Swedish

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Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia sv

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Old Swedish salter, from Old Norse saltr, from Proto-Germanic *saltaz, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls, *sáls.

Adjective

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salt (comparative saltare, superlative saltast)

  1. salty
    Antonym: (of water) söt
    Soppan är för salt
    The soup is too salty
Declension
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Inflection of salt
Indefinite positive comparative superlative1
common singular salt saltare saltast
neuter singular salt saltare saltast
plural salta saltare saltast
masculine plural2 salte saltare saltast
Definite positive comparative superlative
masculine singular3 salte saltare saltaste
all salta saltare saltaste

1 The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
2 Dated or archaic.
3 Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

Etymology 2

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From Old Swedish salt, from Old Norse salt (akin to Old Saxon salt, Old High German salz, Old Dutch salt, Old English sealt), from Proto-Germanic *saltą, from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂l-, *séh₂ls. Compare Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian salt.

Noun

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salt n

  1. salt
    1. (uncountable) sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a condiment and preservative.
    2. (chemistry) One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid.
Declension
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Declension of salt
nominative genitive
singular indefinite salt salts
definite saltet saltets
plural indefinite salter salters
definite salterna salternas
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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References

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Anagrams

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Tagalog

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Etymology

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Semantic loan from English as in, via an unadapted borrowing from English salt, which is a calque of Tagalog asin, due to homophony with English as in.

Pronunciation

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Interjection

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salt (Baybayin spelling ᜐᜓᜎ᜔ᜆ᜔) (slang, dated)

  1. mild intensifier: literally
    Ang init ng araw, salt pare!
    The sun is so hot, as in [HOT] bro!

Usage notes

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Turkish

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Etymology

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From Proto-Turkic *sal- (“to unleash”).

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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salt

  1. exclusively, only, just, absolute
    salt çoğunluk
    absolute majority

Synonyms

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Descendants

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Further reading

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  • “salt”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
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