Other forms: salutes, saluted, saluting
To salute is to raise your flat hand to your forehead as a formal greeting. A soldier salutes an officer, the guard at the gate salutes the car going through, and children copy the gesture as a joke.
The noun works the same way — a smart salute, to return a salute, and the twenty-one-gun salute, where the greeting is fired rather than gestured. Away from the military, to salute someone is to praise them in public: 'we salute their courage', 'a book that salutes the nurses of that winter'. That use is warm and a little grand, and it belongs in speeches. Do not mix it up with salutation, which is the greeting at the top of a letter. The Italian toast salute, said over a raised glass, is the same Latin word arriving by another road.
1verbsaluteTo raise the hand to the head as a formal military greeting.
“The young private saluted and stood waiting to be spoken to.”
synonyms: greet
2noungestureThat gesture, or a formal ceremonial act of greeting or honour.
“He gave a quick salute and climbed into the truck.”
3verbpraiseTo praise or honour someone publicly.
“The mayor saluted the volunteers who had kept the shelter open.”
Salute is Latin saluto, to greet — and what the Roman was doing was wishing you health, from salus, good health, a relative of salvus, safe. The same root turns up in salutary, in salubrious, and in the Italian toast salute. Under the stiff hand, every salute is a wish that you stay well.
Proto-Indo-European
*solh₂-
Latin
salūtō — to greet; to wish health to
English, today
salute
Built from
Borrowed from Latin salūtō (“to greet; to wish health to”), from salūs (“greeting, good health”), related to salvus (“safe”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA