You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: “P” – Vocab-ability – A More Powerful Vocabulary (This post includes all entries beginning with the letter “P”)
I do money seminars from time to time and I enjoy words and their origins.
Salary - from the Latin for Salt. In the days of the early Roman Empire the Roman soldiers were sometime paid in salt - a valuable commodity in those days that could be exchanged for other goods and services. >>> hence the old expression, that man is worth his salt.
From which comes the Japanese word "sarari-man" (that is, "salary-man"). When I taught ESL in Japan, I would often tell my students the origin of that word, in the hopes of motivating them to study more etymology / roots / vocab.
I did not include the root "sal" in the origianal Vocab-ability series, I could come up with only 2 words (besides "salt") that are derived from it – saline and salary. And my cut-off for inclusion was at least 3 words.
I'm debating whether to include it in this Steemit Vocab series. Whadaya think? Should I? Can you think of any other English words derived from "sal"?
check out the origin of the word salad. also salami though this one is stretching it out a bit but still derives from salt / sal.
I find words and their roots can be very interesting and knowing their roots helps to understand them and their offspring better.
Done. Adding salad and salami and "sarari-man," I had a total of 5 examples derived from the Latin. So, I will include it in the "S" post.
Thanks for your input. I find the fact that "salad" is derived from that root fascinating ... just like most other word origins.