Other forms: salutations
A salutation is a greeting, especially at the start of a letter. The salutation of the letter, formal salutations, warm salutations.
In letter writing it is the Dear Somebody line, and it decides the closing, since Dear Sir takes Yours faithfully and a name takes Yours sincerely. In speech the word is formal to the point of being comic.
1nounsalutationA greeting, especially at the start of a letter.
“Letters to the bank should begin with a formal salutation such as Dear Sir or Madam.”
salutation is a greeting.
Latin salutatio comes from salutare, to greet, from salus, health.
Proto-Indo-European
*solh₂-
Latin
salutatio — a greeting, a wishing health to
Old French
salutacion
Middle English
salutacioun
English, today
salutation
Built from
From Middle English salutacioun, from Old French salutacion, from Latin salutatio (“a greeting, a wishing health to”), from saluto (“wish one’s health, greet”), from salus (“well-being”). Compare the Latin greeting salveo literally “be well”.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA