Other forms: salvos, salvoes
A salvo is all the guns firing together, once. Fire a salvo, an opening salvo, a salvo of shells.
The point of firing together was to overwhelm rather than to warn, and a salvo is a single volley rather than continuous fire. The opening salvo is now used far more of arguments than of artillery: it means the first attack in a public row.
1nounsalvoAll the guns firing together, once.
“The battleship turned and fired a salvo at the enemy fleet.”
salvo is a volley.
Italian salva comes from Latin salve, a greeting, since the first such volleys were fired in salute.
Latin
salvo
English, today
salvo
Built from
From Latin salvo, ablative of salvus, the past participle of salvāre (“to save, to reserve”), either from salvo jure (“the right being reserved”), or from salvo errore et omissone (“reserving error and omission”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA