salve

Meanings

Noun

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

Verb

• To calm or assuage.
• To heal by applications or medicaments; to apply salve to; to anoint.
• To heal; to remedy; to cure; to make good.
• To salvage.
• To save (the appearances or the phenomena); to explain (a celestial phenomenon); to account for (the apparent motions of the celestial bodies).
• To resolve (a difficulty); to refute (an objection); to harmonize (an apparent contradiction).
• To explain away; to mitigate; to excuse.
• To say “salve” to; to greet; to salute.

Interjection

• Hail; a greeting.

Origin

• From Middle English salve, from Old English sealf, from Proto-West Germanic *salbu, from Proto-Germanic *salbō, from Proto-Indo-European, from *selp-.
• Cognate with Middle Low German salve (Danish salve, Dutch zalf), Old High German salba (German Salbe), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌱𐍉𐌽𐍃, Albanian gjalpë, Sanskrit सर्पिस्, Ancient Greek ἔλπος.
• From Old English sealfian, from Proto-West Germanic *salbōn, from Proto-Germanic *salbōną, from *salbō (whence salve).
• From Latin salvō.
• From Latin salvē.
• From the interjection salve.