English
salacity
Salacity comes from Latin salācitās ‘promoting sexual desire or lust’, from salāx ‘prone to leaping, provocative’, and ultimately from saliō ‘leap, jump, bound’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsaliō1‘leap, jump, bound’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsalāx1‘prone to leaping, provocative’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsalācitās1‘promoting sexual desire or lust’
- Englishearliest quotation 1607salacity1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English salacity
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1607, Edward Topsell, Of the Indian little Pig-Cony: “One of the males is sufficient in procreation for…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsaliōWiktionary, English salacity‘leap, jump, bound’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsalāxWiktionary, English salacity‘prone to leaping, provocative’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsalācitāsWiktionary, English salacity‘promoting sexual desire or lust’
- Englishearliest quotation 1607salacityWiktionary, English salacity. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1607, Edward Topsell, Of the Indian little Pig-Cony: “One of the males is sufficient in procreation for…”
Formed from salacious + -ity
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *sel- ‘jump, spring’
sale, insult, savage, exile, silva, salon, salvage, sill, sylvan, salle, slink, somersault, selva, seel, selly, 17 more
through Latin saliō ‘leap, jump, bound’
result, salt, sauce, salmon, resilience, sally, resilient, salad, salient, resiliency, exultant, salience, 26 more
Today it means
noun The state or quality of being salacious; lewdness, obscenity, bawdiness.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “salacity”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin saliō / salacity