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salty

adj
/ˈsɒlti/UK/ˈsɔlti/US/ˈsɔlte/

Etymology

PIE word *sḗh₂l From Middle English salti, equivalent to salt + -y. Compare Saterland Frisian soaltig (“salty”), West Frisian sâltich (“salty”), Dutch zoutig (“salty”), German Low German soltig (“salty”), German salzig (“salty”). (coarse; irritated, annoyed): Referencing the sharp, 'spicy' flavor of salt. (indignant): Perhaps implying the person is a crybaby, shedding salty tears, or derived from the preceding.

  1. inherited from salti

Definitions

  1. Tasting of salt.

    • A few types of molecules get sensed by receptors on the tongue. Protons coming off of acids ping receptors for "sour." Sugars get received as "sweet." Bitter, salty, and the proteinaceous flavor umami all set off their own neural cascades.

  2. Containing salt.

    • At Zipaquirá, the salty ore is taken from the mine in chunks, then thrown into large tanks of water, where the salt is dissolved out. The resulting brine is drawn off into pipelines, containers, or tank trucks and sold […]
    • My job was to couple the dumpers, full or empty, then uncouple them at the main shaft, and to open and close the weather door on the trip to the roof galleries, where the salty ore was dynamited and broken down.

  3. Coarse

    Coarse; provocative; earthy.

    • In the following piece she has some characteristically salty things to say about what happens when law and medicine meet.
    • (In characteristically salty fashion, Sara admits: “I was no doubt a horrible little bitch" at this age.)
    • The court might have been tempted to construe the First Amendment as too momentous — too consequential — to vindicate a disappointed teenager’s salty outburst after being cut from the varsity cheer squad.
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. Experienced, especially used to indicate a veteran of the naval services

      Experienced, especially used to indicate a veteran of the naval services; salty dog (from salt of the sea).

      • There's a sailor's tavern at the end of the street where I could find companionship if I chose (one catches salty boys going in and out at any hour) but only music matters to me now.
      • Plus bits of business involving a salty Russian seafarer and overflying warplanes.

    2. Irritated, annoyed, angry, bitter.

      • Ray and Fuzzy were salty with our unhip no-playing piano player, because she broke time on the piano so bad that the strings yelled whoa to the hammers.
      • I want to beg your pardon for making you salty that night.
      • Misery can make you blame everybody else for your salty attitude. You think people just don't get where you're coming from. How can so many people be so stupid, you think. Well, your misery is very likely self-inflicted.

    3. Pertaining to the Sardinian language and those dialects of Catalan, spoken in the…

      Pertaining to the Sardinian language and those dialects of Catalan, spoken in the Balearic Islands and along the coast of Catalonia, that use definitive articles descended from the Latin ipse (“self”) instead of the Latin ille (“that”).

The neighborhood

Derived

nonsalty, oversalty, saltyish, supersalty, unsalty, jump salty, salty tooth, saltily, saltiness

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at salty. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01salty02tasting03drink04glass05lime06quicklime07treatment08preserve09sweet

A definitional loop anchored at salty. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at salty

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA