salary
/ˈsæləɹi/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms salaries salarying salaried sallary sellary
- 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.
- verb To pay on the basis of a period of a week or longer, especially to convert from another form of compensation.
- adjective (obsolete) Saline.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English salarie, from Anglo-Norman salarie, from Old French salaire, from Latin salārium (“wages”), the neuter form of the adjective salārius (“related to salt”), from sal (“salt”). 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. Another is that the phrase meant “money used to buy salt [and other miscellaneous items]”.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Saline [Obs.]
- noun The recompense or consideration paid, or stipulated to be paid, to a person at regular intervals for services; fixed wages, as by the year, quarter, or month; stipend; hire.
- To pay, or agree to pay, a salary to; to attach salary to; as, to salary a clerk; to salary a position.
Etymology [L. salarius.]
Etymology [F. salarie, L. salarium, originally, salt money, the money given to the Roman soldiers for salt, which was a part of thir pay, fr. salarius belonging to salt, fr. sal salt. See Salt.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “salary”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details