Etymograph / Myth vs. record / salary

Myth vs. record

salary

Every word has its own definition in its root. Some words also carry a story about where they came from. Here is what Wiktionary says about the story, and what the record shows.

What Wiktionary says about the story

A commonly cited theory states that the phrase meant “money consisting of salt”, because, supposedly, Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, but there is no evidence for either of these claims from ancient sources.

The record

Salary comes from Latin salārium ‘wages’, from salārius ‘related to salt’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sḗh₂l.

1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sḗh₂l¹‘salt’reconstructed
2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sāls¹‘salt’reconstructed
3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsal²‘salt’
4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsalārius²‘related to salt’
5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsalārium²‘wages’
6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400salaire²
7. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400salarie²
8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500salarie²
9. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602salary²

The full lineage of salary →