An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Salz

by Friedrich Kluge

Salz, n., ‘salt,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and OHG. salz, n.; corresponding to the equiv. Goth. salt, AS. sealt, n., E. salt, Du. zout, OSax. salt (also an adj. OIc. saltr, AS. sealt, ‘salty, saline’). The specifically Teut. form sal-ta- (whence Lapp. saltte) is of course related to Lat. sal, Gr. ἅλς; comp. further OSlov. solĭ, Lett. sâls, OIr. salann, ‘salt.’ The lengthened pre-Teut. root sald appears also in Lat. sallere, ‘to salt,’ with the assimilation of ld to ll; in Lith. the corresponding adj. saldùs has the remarkable signification ‘sweet’ (Lith. druskà, ‘salt,’ is connected with Lett. druska, ‘crumb.’ Among the Eastern Aryans a cognate term is wanting, the word salt, curiously enough, not being intentioned in the Rig-Veda. Perhaps the Western Aryans, in their migration, got their knowledge of the mineral from a civilised tribe that has also exercised an influence on European languages in other instances (comp. Silber). That a graded form could be constructed from even a foreign term admits of no doubt (see Sülze). Perhaps the divergence between Teut. salta- and Gr. Lat. sal- is due to differences anterior to the period in which the word was borrowed.