Other forms: salvaged, salvaging
To salvage is to get out whatever can still be used when most of it is lost. Salvaging photo albums from a flooded cellar, salvaging bricks from a demolished wall, salvaging the engine from a burnt-out car.
At sea it is a trade and a body of law: salvage crews, salvage tugs, salvage rights over a wreck and its cargo. Away from the water the figurative use runs everywhere — salvage a deal, salvage your reputation, salvage a draw with a goal in the last minute, salvage something useful from a wasted afternoon. The noun means both the act and the goods rescued, and a salvage yard is where old car parts go to be sold on. The word assumes a wreck or a failure behind it: you salvage from disaster, so you do not salvage your keys from your coat pocket.
1verbsalvageTo rescue what can still be used from a wreck, fire or flood.~10%
“They salvaged what they could from the burnt kitchen.”
2verbworthwhileTo rescue something worthwhile from a situation that has mostly gone wrong.~20%
“A late goal salvaged a draw for the visitors.”
3nounpropertyThe rescue of property from a wreck, or the property itself.~70%
“The salvage was loaded onto barges and towed to shore.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 20 sentences found in the wild and placed 20 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Latin salvus meant 'safe', and salvō was 'to make safe, secure, save'. Old French salver carried it forward and English added the ending -age. Save, safe, salvation and salvage are one family, which is why salvage always implies that something was in real danger.
Proto-Indo-European
*solh₂-
Latin
salvo — to make safe, secure, save
Old French
salver
English, today
salvage
From Old French salver (see also save, from a variant form), from Latin salvo (“to make safe, secure, save”), from Latin salvus (“safe”) with the English suffix -age.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA