salsa

UK/ˈsæl.sə/US/ˈsɑl.sə/

nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,765 of 15,258neutral

Salsa is a lively Latin dance of quick hip movement. Dance salsa, a salsa class, salsa music.

It came together in New York in the 1960s and 70s among Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians rather than in any one country. The basic step is quick-quick-slow over eight beats. The word is the Spanish for sauce, and it names the dip too.

Definitions of salsa

1nounsalsaA lively Latin dance and its music.B2
“They take salsa classes on Friday nights and dance until midnight.”

salsa is a dance.

Where it comes from

Spanish salsa means sauce, from Latin salsus, salted. Sauce is the same word by another road.

Proto-Indo-European
*sḗh₂l
Latin
salsus — salted
Spanish
salsa — sauce
English, today
salsa

Spanish salsa (“sauce”), from Latin salsus (“salted”), whence also the doublet a doublet of sauce (via Old French).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Dance

Practise this word

salsa in the wild

Because most of the basic musical components predate the labeling of salsa, there have been many controversies regarding its origin.
Salsa music
Pico de gallo, also called salsa fresca ('fresh sauce'), and salsa cruda ('raw sauce'), is a type of salsa commonly used in Mexican cuisine.
Pico de gallo
Pico de gallo can be used in much the same way as Mexican liquid salsas.
Pico de gallo
In Peru, salsa criolla is a cold sauce typically used to accompany meat.
Salsa criolla
In the 1970s, she signed for Fania Records and became strongly associated with the salsa genre, releasing hits such as "Quimbara".
Celia Cruz

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the salsa family

gravy salsa

salsa — used about once every 1,559 pages · #5,765 · point at the bar for the others

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