salvo

Meanings

Noun

• An exception; a reservation; an excuse.
• A concentrated fire from pieces of artillery, as in endeavoring to make a break in a fortification; a volley.
• A salute paid by a simultaneous, or nearly simultaneous, firing of a number of cannon.
• Any volley, as in an argument or debate.
• The combined cheers of a crowd.

Verb

• To discharge weapons in a salvo.

Origin

• From Latin salvo, ablative of salvus, the past participle of salvāre, either from salvo jure, or from salvo errore et omissone.
• A 1719 alteration of salva (1591) from Latin salva (compare French salve, also from Italian), from Latin salve, the usual Roman greeting, imperative of salvere.