The corpus record — Latin

saliva

salive, spittle

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Saturae 2 · 4.42/10k
Vitellius 1 · 4.15/10k
De Cultu Feminarum 1 · 1.95/10k
De Fuga in Persecutione 1 · 1.88/10k
Apotheosis 1 · 1.35/10k
Peristephanon Liber 1 · 0.57/10k
De Carnis Resurrectione 1 · 0.44/10k
Satyricon 1 · 0.33/10k
De Medicina 3 · 0.29/10k
Epistulae. Selections. 1 · 0.23/10k
Naturalis Historia 9 · 0.23/10k
De Rerum Natura 1 · 0.21/10k

Densest 12 of 14 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. saliva — de Vaan

saliva 'salive, spittle' [f. a\ (Varro+) Derivatives: salebra 'unevenness' (Cic.+). Pit. *sal-Two-> *sal-es-ro- * dirty yellow*. PIE *slH-V- 'dirty yeilow\ IE cognates: Ir. sal [f] 'dirt', salach, W. halawg 'dirty' < *sal- < PIE *slH-V-; OPr. salowis, Ru. solovej, SCr. slaviq 'nightingale' < *sal-u(< *solH-uo- 'grey'?); Ru. solovyj 'light bay', solovoj 'yellowish grey', CS slavoocije 'state of having green eyes, … — [de Vaan, s.v. saliva, p. 550]

2. sălīva — Lewis & Short

sălīva, ae, f.kindr. with si/alon,

I spittle, saliva (in gen., while sputum is that already spit out; equally used in sing. and plur.).

I Lit., sing., Cat. 23, 16; 78, 8; 99, 10; Juv. 6, 623; Sen. Ira, 3, 38, 2; Plin. 27, 6, 24, § 41; 28, 12, 53, § 193: in manum ingerere, id. 28, 4, 7, § 37 al.—Plur., Lucr. 4, 638; 4, 1108; Col. 6, 9, 3: unā salivā, without interruption, Hier. ad Pam. 61, 4.—

B Transf., a spittle-like moisture, slime: cochlearum, slime, Plin. 30, 15, 47, § 136; cf. ostrearum, id, 32, 6, 21, § 60: purpurarum, id. 9, 36, 60, § 128: lacrimationum, id. 11, 37, 54, § 147: siderum (honey-dew), id. 11, 12, 12, § 30.—

II Trop., taste, flavor; longing, appetite (poet., and in post-Aug. prose): Methymnaei Graia saliva meri, Prop. 4 (5), 8, 38. cf.: suo cuique vino saliva, Plin. 23, 1, 22, § 40: mercurialis, for gain, Pers. 5, 112: turdarum, id. 6, 24: Aetna tibi salivam movet, makes your mouth water, Sen. Ep. 79, 7: quicquid (sc. vinum) ad salivam facit, Petr. 48, 2.

3. saliva — Walde–Hofmann

saliva, -ae f. „Speichel“; familiär „Geschmack, feine Marke“ (seit Catull, rom.; selivärius, -a, -um Plin. [-um n, Gebiß am Pferdezaum* Edict. Diocl.], saltvösus „voll Speichel* seit Verg., salivö, -äre „geifere* seit Colum. [saltvätum n. „Speichel, flußerregendes Heilmittel“ Colum.], salivatiö „Speichelfluß* seit Cael. Aur.): zu air. sail "labos", gül sal „nasser Schmutz, Ohrenschmalz*, kymr, halawg „befleckt*, … — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. saliva, p. 1374]

In the wild

salivis Prudentius, Peristephanon Liber 2.283
salivam Tertullian, De Carnis Resurrectione 59
salivae Celsus, De Medicina 2.2
salivam Persius, Saturae 5.112
salivam Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 7.16.p1
salivam Jerome, Epistulae. Selections. 22.29

6 of 25 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. saliva (scan p. 550; entry #1535). Root candidates: *sal-, *salik-, *salkidn-.
Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. saliva (scan pp. 1374-1375; entry #2392). Root candidates: *saluo-.

Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.