salt

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old English sealt; akin to Old High German salz salt, Lithuanian saldus sweet, Latin sal salt, Greek hals salt, sea Date: before 12th century 1. a. a crystalline compound NaCl that consists of sodium chloride, is abundant in nature, and is used especially to season or preserve food or in industry — called also common salt b. a substance (as Glauber's salt) resembling common salt c. plural (1) a mineral or saline mixture (as Epsom salts) used as an aperient or cathartic (2) smelling salts d. any of various compounds that result from replacement of part or all of the acid hydrogen of an acid by a metal or a group acting like a metal ; an ionic crystalline compound 2. a container for salt at table — often used in the phrases above the salt and below the salt alluding to the former custom of seating persons of higher rank above and those of lower rank below a saltcellar placed in the middle of a long table 3. a. an ingredient that gives savor, piquancy, or zest ; flavor <

a people…full of life, vigor, and the salt of personality — Clifton Fadiman

> b. sharpness of wit ; pungency c. common sense d. reserve, skepticism — usually used in the phrases with a grain of salt and with a pinch of salt e. a dependable steadfast person or group of people — usually used in the phrase salt of the earth 4. sailor <

a tale worthy of an old salt

> 5. keep 3 — usually used in the phrase worth one's salt • saltlike adjective II. transitive verb Date: before 12th century 1. a. to treat, provide, or season with common salt b. to preserve (food) with salt or in brine c. to supply (as an animal) with salt 2. to give flavor or piquancy to (as a story) 3. a. to enrich (as a mine) artificially by secretly placing valuable mineral in some of the working places b. to add something to secretly <

salted the files with forged papers

>; also to insert or place secretly <

salted the mines along the road

> 4. a. to sprinkle with or as if with a salt b. scatter, intersperse • salter noun III. adjective Date: before 12th century 1. a. saline, salty b. being or inducing the one of the four basic taste sensations that is suggestive of seawater — compare bitter, sour, sweet 2. cured or seasoned with salt ; salted <

salt cod

> 3. overflowed with salt water <

a salt pond

> 4. sharp, pungent • saltness noun IV. adjective Etymology: by shortening & alteration from assaut, from Middle English, from Anglo-French en saut in rut Date: 1598 obsolete lustful, lascivious