Etymograph

English

salify

Salify comes from French salifier ‘to salify, turn into salt’, and goes back to 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. Frenchc. 1600–presentsalifier2‘to salify, turn into salt’
  5. Englishtodaysalify2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin sal
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English salify

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 salify‘salt’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentsalifierWiktionary, English salify‘to salify, turn into salt’
  5. EnglishtodaysalifyWiktionary, English salify

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *sḗh₂l ‘salt’

salt, salsa, saucer, halogen, 29 more

through Latin sal ‘salt’

sauce, salary, salad, cellar, sausage, sal, saline, salami, salina, 12 more

Today it means

verb To react so as to form a salt

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “salify”; 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 / salify

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