Salty: The Ever-Changing Realm Of The English Language

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Salty is a word that is typically associated with taste. For example, the sentence “This potato chip is a little salty” indicates that there is large quantity of salt on the chip. However, in the ever-changing realm of the English language, new meanings of words constantly arise. This particular word has four definitions to choose from. The first option is the obvious option; ‘an item that has a large quantity of salt’. This definition is the most widely accepted and utilized usage for the word. It does not really stem from any particular vernacular, and it is not used more in certain vernaculars. There is not a large history behind this usage, as it has been around for a long time, but it can be connected to the Bible in a roundabout way. Christians are called to …show more content…

This definition can be traced as far back as 1936 in the book “Cowboy Lingo” by Ramon F. Adams. The book uses this word in extreme cases by calling somebody “salty as Lot’s wife”. The word used in this respect even made it to a few dictionaries early on. One particular dictionary that included salty, was the “Dictionary of Afro-American Slang.” The word is mainly used in the black community, but it is also starting to grow among others. The connections between Christianity and the word salty in this context begins and ends with the “Lot’s wife” comment. Another option comes from western slang meaning ‘a wild or untamable horse’. Being a specific term, this definition is not as widely used as the other two. Most of the references that have been made to this word are western literature themed. Ike Blasingame used this word in his book “Dakota Cowboy: My Life in the Old Days”. This definition never really expanded outside of western speech, however. The final definition is ‘expensive’. This definition is even less widely accepted than the previous

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