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salient

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 13 April 2006

Etymology

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The heraldic sense “leaping” and the sense “projecting outward” are borrowed from Latin salientem, the accusative form of saliēns (“springing, leaping”), present participle of saliō (“leap, spring”, verb). The senses “prominent” and “pertinent” are relatively recent, and derive from the phrase salient point, which is a calque of the Latin punctum saliēns, a translation of Aristotle's term for the embryonal heart visible in (opened) eggs, which he thought seemed to move already. Compare also the German calque der springende Punkt.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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salient (comparative more salient, superlative most salient)

  1. Worthy of note; pertinent or relevant.
    Synonyms: pertinent, relevant; see also Thesaurus:pertinent
    The article is not exhaustive, but it covers the salient points pretty well.
    • 1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, chapter V, in The Return of the Native […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC:
      With nearer approach these fragmentary sounds became pieced together, and were found to be the salient points of the tune called "Nancy's Fancy."
    • 1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter II, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, (please specify the page number(s)):
      The last salient point in which the systems of these creatures differed from ours was in what one might have thought a very trivial particular.
  2. Prominent; conspicuous.
    Antonyms: obscure, trivial
    • 1936, H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth:
      Warning me that many of the street signs were down, the youth drew for my benefit a rough but ample and painstaking sketch map of the town's salient features.
    • 1834, George Bancroft, History of the United States of America, from the discovery of the American continent:
      He [Grenville] had neither salient traits, nor general comprehensiveness of mind.
    • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎[1], page 2:
      Professionally published dictionaries do not seem to have extended coverage beyond the most frequent and salient items.
    • 2024 October 3, Riley Bailey, Angelica Evans, Grace Mappes, Davit Gasparyan, Nate Trotter, Frederick W. Kagan, “Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, October 3, 2024”, in Ukraine Project, Institute for the Study of War:
      Russian forces likely accumulated a large amount of equipment for such mechanized assaults, but significant medium- to long-term constraints on Russian armored vehicle stocks will become more salient as losses grow and may force the Russian military command to rethink the benefit of continuing such intensified mechanized activity in Ukraine.
  3. (heraldry, usually of a quadruped) Depicted in a leaping posture.
    Gules, a reindeer salient or (arms of Vågå).
    a lion salient
  4. (often military) Projecting outwards, pointing outwards.
    a salient angle
  5. (obsolete) Moving by leaps or springs; jumping.
  6. (obsolete) Shooting or springing out; projecting.
    • 1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension, […], 10th edition, London: […] J. Owen, […], and F[rancis] and C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 50:
      He had in himſelf a ſalient, living ſpring of generous and manly action.
  7. (geometry) Denoting any angle less than two right angles.
    Hyponyms: acute, obtuse

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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salient (plural salients)

  2. (military) An outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense.
    • 1919, “General Pershing's Story”, in Americans Defending Democracy: Our Soldiers' Own Stories, World's War Stories, Inc., page 9:
      On April 26 the First Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier salient on the Picardy battlefront.
    • 1978, Jan Morris, chapter 9, in Farewell the Trumpets‎[2], New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, page 193:
      The battlefronts were often no more than a few hundred yards wide, and the salients never more than a few miles deep.
  3. (geography) A protrusion of the administrative borders of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state into another geopolitical entity, generally of the same administrative level.
    Hyponym: panhandle
    Coordinate terms: enclave, exclave
  4. (geology) An overall-convex, protruding section of a sinuous fold and thrust belt, thrust sheet, or a single thrust fault, caused by one or more of: deformation (folding and faulting) of strata and geologic structures during orogenesis, differences in the angle of critical taper during orogenesis, or differing erosional level of the present geomorphological surface.
    • 2018 April 17, Michele Livani, Davide Scrocca, Paola Arecco, Carlo Doglioni, “Structural and Stratigraphic Control on Salient and Recess Development Along a Thrust Belt Front: The Northern Apennines (Po Plain, Italy)”, in Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth‎[3], volume 123, number 5, →DOI, pages 4360-4387:
      Orogenic arcs are made up by more advanced segments (salients) separated by less advanced zones (recesses) (Miser, 1932). Within salients, the critical taper is lower, the distance among thrust ramps is larger, and there may be more ramps departing from the basal décollement layer with respect to the recess areas.
    Antonym: recess

Derived terms

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  • sally (cognate; both of these military terms come from a verb meaning "to leap forth", but in different ways)

Translations

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Anagrams

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Latin

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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salient

  1. third-person plural future active indicative of saliō
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