Definition of SALARY

salary

Plural: salaries

Noun

  • something that remunerates
  • A fixed amount of money paid to a worker, usually calculated on a monthly or annual basis, not hourly, as wages. Implies a degree of professionalism and/or autonomy.

Verb

Verb Forms: salaried, salarying, salaries

  • To pay someone a fixed, regular compensation for work performed.
  • To pay on the basis of a period of a week or longer, especially to convert from another form of compensation.

Adj

  • Saline.

Examples

  • If only Scrabble wins could salary a player for their strategic genius!

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English salarie, from Anglo-Norman salarie, from Old French salaire, from Latin salārium (“wages”), the neuter form of the adjective salārius (“related to salt”), from sal (“salt”). There have been various attempts to explain how the Latin term for “wages” came from the adjective “related to salt”. It is generally assumed that salārium was an abbreviation of salārium argentum (“salt money”), though that phrase is not attested. A commonly cited theory is that the phrase meant “money consisting of salt”, because, supposedly, Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, but there is no evidence for either of these claims from ancient sources. Another is that the phrase meant “money used to buy salt [and other miscellaneous items]”.

Scrabble Score: 9

salary: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
salary: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
salary: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 9

salary: valid Words With Friends Word