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salubrious

Printable Version
Pronunciation: sê-lu-bri-ês Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Healthy, healthful, wholesome, good for your health.

Notes: Today's Good Word is really good for you: anything that is salubrious makes you healthier and prolongs your life. Salubrious people, places, and things possess salubriousness, or, if you can't wait for a noun that long, simply say salubrity. There isn't much more that can be done with today's word.

In Play: Some places are considered more salubrious than others: "Raphael moved to the coast because he thinks the salt air more salubrious than the chemical mix in the air of Manhattan." He is probably right, though salt has little appeal to my lungs. It is the case, however, that other things may be salubrious: "After a meal that was as salubrious as it was delicious, the company repaired to the living room to watch slides."

Word History: Today's Good Word is a makeover of Latin salubris "health-giving, wholesome" from salus, salutis "health, sound condition". We find salus at the bottom of many borrowed words referring to health, such as salutation and salute, always accompanied by wishes of good health. Initial Ss in Proto-Indo-European words often became Hs in Greek, so the same root in Greek is found in holos "whole". Besides hologram, this word also sponsored catholic "all-inclusive", which came through Latin catholicus from Greek katholikos. Katholikos is a compound of kata "down, according to" + holos "the whole". (Today we thank James Stemwedel for suggesting today's mentally salubrious vocabulary item.)

Dr. Goodword, alphaDictionary.com

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