Another Day, Another Word

Today's word:

Salient [sey-lee-uhnt]

Another one I quiet like. Salient is one of those words that many people use (" The salient point of the matter is...") but few actually know what it means. It first made its way into English in the mid 1500's as a term in Heraldry to describe a leaping animal eg: :Salient Lion.

It came to English from the Latin salire "To Leap" but goes further back than that. It's most ancient know form is from PIE (Proto-Indo-European: The ancient mother tongue from which of most European, Middle Eastern languages formed. Sanskrit comes from PIE as well.) sie also "To Leap"

From the heraldic origins we have its next two uses, both military, for the most outward jutting point in a walls defences, a salient angle and the first part of a battle line to engage the enemy, the salient troops. This was about 100 years after its first use.

It then took another 200 odd years for its more modern use to mean anything that is prominent or important. So we finally make it back to where we started but now we know what a salient point actually is.

For one final bit of Trivia: The last name of Antonio Salieri the composer, who was cast as the villain in the great film Amadeus about the life of Mozart, (If you have never seen it, do yourself a favour and rent it) comes from the same origin. His name sounds so much better as it is than if it was Anglicised to Anthony The Leaping...