Reviewed dossiers resolved from the request.
MULTI-WORD EVIDENCE LAB
PAIRWISE LAB ↗THE QUESTION THE GRAPH WAS BUILT TO ANSWER2–8 WORDS
CONNECT
THE WHOLE
FAMILY.
Ask how several words are related. *SET-U computes pairwise shortest paths, then builds a compact spanning forest from cited lexical edges. A shared person or text may bridge islands, but it is never mislabeled as ancestry.
Distinct forms in the spanning evidence network.
Distinct cited lexical relationships used.
Distinct bibliographic records supporting this view.
ONE REVIEWED NETWORK1 lexical branches · 0 context bridges
01
THE SPANNING EVIDENCE FOREST
1 BRANCHES CONNECT THE RESOLVED WORDS
REVIEWED LEXICAL PATH
8 EDGESsalary ↔ salt
01
Present-Day English · 13th c.–today
attestedsalary
fixed regular compensation
borrowing
The word narrowed toward fixed regular compensation.
SOUND + EVIDENCE
French stress and vowels were adapted into English.
Merriam-Webster editors · establishedSalary — Word History · Word History ↗OPEN EDGE 13 ↗02
Anglo-French · medieval
attestedsalarie / salaire
compensation, payment
inheritance
Official payment became general compensation.
SOUND + EVIDENCE
A regular Romance continuation of Latin salārium.
Romance historical lexicography · establishedSalary — Word History · Word History ↗OPEN EDGE 14 ↗03
Latin · Roman imperial period
attestedsalārium
official payment or allowance
derivation
The precise bridge from salt to official compensation is not preserved.
SOUND + EVIDENCE
salārium is morphologically related to salārius “pertaining to salt,” from sāl.
Latin lexicography · Pliny · establishedSalary — Word History · Etymology note ↗OPEN EDGE 15 ↗04
Latin · antiquity
attestedsāl
salt
inheritance
Material salt; no wage sense is reconstructed at this stage.
SOUND + EVIDENCE
Latin sāl continues the inherited salt word through Italic development.
Mallory & Adams · probableThe Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World · salt lexeme ↗OPEN EDGE 16 ↗05
Proto-Indo-European · c. 4500–2500 BCE
reconstructed*séh₂l-
salt
inheritance
The material salt meaning remains stable; no payment sense exists at the reconstructed stage.
SOUND + EVIDENCE
Proto-Germanic *saltom belongs to the Indo-European salt family represented as *séh₂l- in the existing dossier and *sal- in other references.
Mallory & Adams · Etymonline · UT LRC editors · probableThe Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World · Appendix 2, Proto-Indo-European salt item ↗OPEN EDGE 487 ↗06
Proto-Germanic · Proto-Germanic prehistory
reconstructed*saltom
salt
inheritance
The material salt sense remains stable across Germanic.
SOUND + EVIDENCE
Old English sealt regularly continues reconstructed Proto-Germanic *saltom.
Etymonline · UT LRC editors · probableSalt — Origin and history · Headword history: Old English sealt from Proto-Germanic *saltom ↗OPEN EDGE 486 ↗07
Old English · Old English
attestedsealt
salt, sodium chloride, condiment, or preservative
inheritance
The condiment and preservative meaning remains central.
SOUND + EVIDENCE
Old English sealt loses or reshapes inherited inflection while the stem stabilizes as Middle English salt.
Merriam-Webster · UT LRC editors · establishedSalt — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use · Word History: Middle English from Old English sealt ↗OPEN EDGE 485 ↗08
Middle English · Middle English
attestedsalt
salt used for seasoning and preservation
historical continuation
The material sense remains while figurative savor, sailor, and chemical-class senses develop.
SOUND + EVIDENCE
Middle English salt continues with stable spelling into modern English while pronunciation changes.
Merriam-Webster · Etymonline editors · establishedSalt — Definition, Word History, and First Known Use · Word History: Middle English from Old English sealt; definitions ↗OPEN EDGE 484 ↗03
WHAT THIS VIEW PROVES
COMPACT DOES NOT MEAN CERTAIN
Every resolved pair is searched through the undirected reviewed graph, bounded at 12 edges.
Cited ancestry, borrowing, derivation, and semantic continuation paths are preferred over historical-context bridges.
The shortest available pair paths are greedily selected until each connectable word belongs to one network.
This is a compact evidence view, not a claim that scholarship has one uniquely minimal family tree.