salve

• (UK) enPR: sălv, säv, IPA^(key): /sɑːv/, /sælv/
• (US) enPR: sălv, săv, IPA^(key): /sæ(l)v/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːv, -ælv, -æv

From Middle English salve, from Old English sealf, from Proto-West Germanic *salbu, from Proto-Germanic *salbō, from Proto-Indo-European *solp-éh₂, from *selp- (“salve, ointment”).

salve (countable and uncountable, plural salves)

1. An ointment, cream, or balm with soothing, healing, or calming effects.
2. Any remedy or action that soothes or heals.

   Your forgiveness was a salve to my conscience and a balm to my wounded ego.

   • 2025 April 30, “Tame March PCE inflation no salve after downbeat Q1 US GDP report”, in Reuters‎^[1], archived from the original on 1 May 2025:

     [Title:] Tame March PCE inflation no salve after downbeat Q1 US GDP report

From Old English sealfian, from Proto-West Germanic *salbōn, from Proto-Germanic *salbōną, from *salbō (whence salve (noun)).

salve (third-person singular simple present salves, present participle salving, simple past and past participle salved)

1. (transitive) To calm or assuage.
   • 1985, Joan Morrison, Share House Blues, Boolarong Publications, page 26:

     She feels guilty for pampering him, and salves her conscience by bossily ordering him to go and fetch the clothes from the line[.]

2. To heal by applications or medicaments; to apply salve to; to anoint.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     I do beseech your majesty […] salve the long-grown wounds of my intemperance."

3. To heal; to remedy; to cure; to make good.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 21:

     But Ebranck salved both their infamies / With noble deedes.

   • 1643, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: […], London: […] T[homas] P[aine] and M[atthew] S[immons] […], →OCLC:

     What may we do, then, to salve this seeming inconsistence?

4. (dated) To salvage.
   • 1942 March, “Notes and News: Repairing Blitzed Underground Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 90:

     The interior woodwork was largely salved from the two cars, as well as the majority of the fittings and seats.

From Latin salvō (“to save”).

salve (third-person singular simple present salves, present participle salving, simple past and past participle salved)

1. (obsolete, astronomy) To save (the appearances or the phenomena); to explain (a celestial phenomenon); to account for (the apparent motions of the celestial bodies).
2. (obsolete) To resolve (a difficulty); to refute (an objection); to harmonize (an apparent contradiction).
   • 1661, Thomas Salusbury, transl., Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems:

     He which should hold it more rational to make the whole Universe move, and thereby to salve the Earths mobility, is more unreasonable....

3. (obsolete) To explain away; to mitigate; to excuse.

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “salve”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

From Latin salvē. The verb is from the interjection.

salve

1. Hail; a greeting.

salve (third-person singular simple present salves, present participle salving, simple past and past participle salved)

1. (transitive) To say “salve” to; to greet; to salute.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 23, page 297:

     By this that ſtraunger knight in preſence came, / And goodly ſalued them; who nought againe / Him anſwered, as courteſie became, / But with ſterne lookes, and ſtomachous diſdaine, / Gaue ſignes of grudge and diſcontentment vaine: […]

• avels, evals, selva, Laves, Elvas, Veals, 'alves, slave, Slavé, Alves, Selva, Levas, laves, vales, veals, valse, Slave

• IPA^(key): /salvə/, [ˈsalvə]

From Middle Low German salve, from Old Saxon salva, from Proto-West Germanic *salbu.

salve c (singular definite salven, plural indefinite salver)

1. ointment (a thick viscous preparation for application to the skin, often containing medication)

From French salve, from Latin salvē (“hail!, welcome!, farewell!”).

salve c (singular definite salven, plural indefinite salver)

1. salvo
2. volley
3. burst
4. tirade

From Middle Low German salven, from Old Saxon salbon, from Proto-West Germanic *salbōn (“to anoint”).

salve (imperative salv, infinitive at salve, present tense salver, past tense salvede, perfect tense er/har salvet)

1. anoint

Borrowed from Italian salva.

• IPA^(key): /salv/

• Audio:

  (file)

salve f (plural salves)

1. salvo, volley of shots
2. round

   une salve d'applaudissements

   A round of applause

• salvage
• salvation

• “salve”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• laves, lavés, levas, Slave, slave, valse, valsé

salve

1. inflection of salvar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): /ˈsal.ve/^[1]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -alve
• Hyphenation: sàl‧ve

Borrowed from Latin salvē.

salve

1. (formal) hello!; hi!; hail!

   Synonym: ciao (colloquial)

2. greetings

• salve¹ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

salve

1. feminine plural of salvo

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

salve f

1. plural of salva

• Selva, selva, slave, svela, valse

Imperative of the verb salveō.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsaɫ.weː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsal.ve]

salvē

1. hail!, hello!, welcome!
2. farewell!

• This is the singular form. When greeting a group, salvēte is used.

• “salve”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “salve”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "salve", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “salve”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

From the oblique forms of Old English sealf, from Proto-West Germanic *salbu, from Proto-Germanic *salbō.

• salf, salfe, salff, salffe, salwe, selve
• scealfe, sealfe, sealve (Early Middle English)
• sallfe (Ormulum)

• IPA^(key): /ˈsalv(ə)/, /salf/

salve (plural salves)

1. A salve; a curative ointment.
2. A remedy, cure, or deliverance.
3. Any ointment or balm.

• salven

• English: salve
• Scots: saw

• “salve, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

salve

1. alternative form of sauf

salve

1. alternative form of sauf

salve

1. alternative form of self

salve

1. alternative form of salven

salve

1. alternative form of saven

From Middle Low German salve (sense 1), and Latin salve (sense 2).

salve f or m (definite singular salva or salven, indefinite plural salver, definite plural salvene)

1. ointment, salve
2. salvo, volley, a number of explosive charges all detonated at once when blasting rock.

• “salve” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Middle Low German salve.

salve m or f (definite singular salven or salva, indefinite plural salvar or salver, definite plural salvane or salvene)

1. ointment, salve

salve (present tense salvar, past tense salva, past participle salva, passive infinitive salvast, present participle salvande, imperative salve/salv)

1. (transitive) to anoint

From Latin salve.

salve m or f (definite singular salven or salva, indefinite plural salvar or salver, definite plural salvane or salvene)

1. salvo, volley, a number of explosive charges all detonated at once when blasting rock.

• “salve” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• Salve, evlas, levas, salve, savle, svale, svela, valse, vasle, vesal, vesla

• Rhymes: -alvɨ, -awvi
• Hyphenation: sal‧ve

From Latin salvē (“hail”).

salve!

1. (poetic) hail!

   Synonym: saudações

2. (colloquial) greetings, hi

   Synonyms: saudações, olá, fala aí

salve m (plural salves)

1. (colloquial) shout out
   • 2020 September 5, SECOM, “Um salve à luta das mulheres indígenas no mundo todo”, in CONAFER‎^[2], Brasília, DF, archived from the original on 3 September 2023:

     Por isso, um salve a todas as guerreiras, sábias, anciãs, jovens, caciques, pajés, mulheres indígenas que resistem e defendem o bem-estar do seu povo.

     So, a shout out to all warrior, wise, old, young, chief, shaman, indigenous women that resist and defend their people's well-being.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

salve

1. inflection of salvar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Borrowed from Latin salvē.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsal.ve/

salve

1. welcome!, greetings!, cheerio!
2. so long!, bye-bye!

• IPA^(key): /ˈsalbe/ [ˈsal.β̞e]
• Rhymes: -albe
• Syllabification: sal‧ve

Borrowed from Latin salvē (“hail, hello”).

salve

1. (poetic) hello, hail

salve

1. inflection of salvar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• “salve”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024