Etymograph

English

salary

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

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin sal
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English salary
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: “This is hire and salary, not revenge.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sḗh₂lWiktionary, Latin sal‘salt’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*sālsWiktionary, Latin sal‘salt’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsalWiktionary, English salary‘salt’
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsalāriusWiktionary, English salary‘related to salt’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsalāriumWiktionary, English salary‘wages’
  6. Old Frenchc. 842–1400salaireWiktionary, English salary
  7. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400salarieWiktionary, English salary
  8. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500salarieWiktionary, English salary
  9. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602salaryWiktionary, English salary. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: “This is hire and salary, not revenge.”

The story

There have been various attempts to explain how the Latin term for “wages” came from the adjective “related to salt”. It is generally assumed that salārium was an abbreviation of salārium argentum (‘salt money’), though that phrase is not attested. 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.folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted. Another is that the phrase meant “money used to buy salt [and other miscellaneous items]”.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

pairs

  • salary and salad both from Latin sal ‘salt’, unproven

through Proto-Indo-European *sḗh₂l ‘salt’

salt, salsa, saucer, halogen, 30 more

through Latin sal ‘salt’

sauce, sausage, saline, sal, salina, salami, 13 more

through Latin salārius ‘related to salt’

cellar

Today it means

noun A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or autonomy.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “salary”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin sal. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *sḗh₂l / salary

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