salad

(sălˈəd)

noun

1. a. A dish of raw leafy green vegetables, often tossed with pieces of other raw or cooked vegetables, fruit, cheese, or other ingredients and served with a dressing.
   b. The course of a meal consisting of this dish.
2. A cold dish of chopped vegetables, fruit, meat, fish, eggs, or other food, usually prepared with a dressing, such as mayonnaise.
3. A green vegetable or herb used in salad, especially lettuce.
4. A varied mixture: “The Declaration of Independence was . . . a salad of illusions” (George Santayana).

Word History: Salt was and is such an important ingredient in salad dressings that the very word salad is based on the Latin word for “salt.” Vulgar Latin had a verb *salāre, “to salt,” from Latin sāl, “salt,” and the past participial form of this verb, *salāta, “having been salted,” came to mean “salad.” The Vulgar Latin word passed into languages descending from it, such as Portuguese (salada) and Old Provençal (salada). Old French may have borrowed its word salade from Old Provençal. Medieval Latin also carried on the Vulgar Latin word in the form salāta. As in the case of so many culinary delights, the English borrowed the word and probably the dish from the French. The Middle English word salade, from Old French salade and Medieval Latin salāta, is first recorded in a recipe book composed before 1399. • Salt is of course an important ingredient of other foods and condiments besides salad dressings, as is evidenced by some other culinary word histories. The words sauce and salsa, borrowed into English from French and Spanish, respectively, both come ultimately from the Latin word salsus, meaning “salted.” Another derivative of this word was the Late Latin adjective salsīcius, “prepared by salting,” which eventually gave us the word sausage.