saline (adj.)

c. 1500, "made of salt" (a sense now obsolete), probably from Latin salinum "salt cellar" or salinae "salt pits," from sal (genitive salis) "salt" (from PIE root *sal- "salt"). The meaning "of, pertaining to, or characteristic of salt" is by 1771.

Saline solution is attested from 1833. Also in Middle English as a noun meaning "salt pit" (13c.), "a salt spring" (mid-15c.). As a shortening of saline solution, by 1926.

updated on December 03, 2021