A word examined

salve

noun

5 letters·English

noun

salve—a soothing ointment applied to the skin to help heal or relieve irritation

/sɑːv/, /sælv/, /sæ(l)v/

Origin

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”). Cognates Cognate with Middle Low German salve (Danish salve, Dutch zalf), Old High German salba (German Salbe), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌻𐌱𐍉𐌽𐍃 (salbōns), Albanian gjalpë (“butter”), Sanskrit सर्पिस् (sarpís), Ancient Greek ἔλπος (élpos).

noun

countable, uncountableAn ointment, cream, or balm with soothing, healing, or calming effects.
countable, uncountableAny remedy or action that soothes or heals.
“Your forgiveness was a salve to my conscience and a balm to my wounded ego.”
“[Title:] Tame March PCE inflation no salve after downbeat Q1 US GDP report”

verb

transitiveTo calm or assuage.
“She feels guilty for pampering him, and salves her conscience by bossily ordering him to go and fetch the clothes from the line[.]”
To heal by applications or medicaments; to apply salve to; to anoint.
“I do beseech your majesty […] salve the long-grown wounds of my intemperance."”
To heal; to remedy; to cure; to make good.
“But Ebranck salved both their infamies / With noble deedes.”
“What may we do, then, to salve this seeming inconsistence?”
datedTo salvage.
“The interior woodwork was largely salved from the two cars, as well as the majority of the fittings and seats.”
obsoleteTo save (the appearances or the phenomena); to explain (a celestial phenomenon); to account for (the apparent motions of the celestial bodies).
obsoleteTo resolve (a difficulty); to refute (an objection); to harmonize (an apparent contradiction).
“He which should hold it more rational to make the whole Universe move, and thereby to salve the Earths mobility, is more unreasonable....”
obsoleteTo explain away; to mitigate; to excuse.
transitiveTo say “salve” to; to greet; to salute.
“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 gru”