sāls

From Proto-Baltic *sal-, *sāl-, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *sāˀlis, from Proto-Indo-European *sal-, *seh₂l- (“salt, sea salt”), perhaps related to the homophonous stem *sal- (“grayish, impure gray”).

In Latvian, both an i-stem (*salis) and an iyo-stem (*saliyos > *saliys > *salis) were formed, yielding present-day sāls, feminine, genitive sāls, and sāls, masculine, genitive sāļa. Cognates include Lithuanian sólymas (“salt water, brine”) (< *solis), Old Prussian sal, Old Church Slavonic соль (solĭ), Russian соль (solʹ), Ukrainian сіль (silʹ), genitive соли (soly), Bulgarian сол (sol), Czech sůl, Polish sól, Proto-Germanic *saltą (Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐍄 (salt), Old High German salz, German Salz, English salt), Old Irish salann, Ancient Greek ἅλς (háls), genitive ἁλός (halós), Latin sāl, genitive sālis, Sanskrit सलिल (salilá, “salty”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): [sàːls]

sāls f or m (6th or 2nd declension, irregular nominative, genitive)

1. salt (white crystalline substance — sodium chloride or NaCl — used for seasoning food)

   vārāmais sāls ― common (lit. cooking) salt

   ēdieniem par maz sāls ― the food has too little salt

2. (chemistry) salt (result of a chemical reaction between an acid and a base)

   fosforskābes sāls ― phosphoric acid salt

   sērskābes saļi jeb sulfāti ― sulfuric acid salts, also known as sulphates

Although officially a feminine sixth-declension noun in standard Latvian, sāls is often used in colloquial Latvian as a masculine second-declension noun.

• sālīt
• sāļš
• sāļums