Savior
From Proto Indo European sol, “whole”; thus the original meaning of savior is “one who makes whole”. Sol is also the ancestor of solid, sage (the plant), salvage, and soldier.
Sol’s accusative form was solwos, which descended into Latin as salvus, “uninjured, healthy, safe”. The verb form of this adjective was salvare (”make safe, make secure”; notice salvation hinted at there), and the nominal was salvator (”one who saves or preserves”). This became sauveour in Old French, and savior in English by 1300. It was used from the beginning to refer to Jesus Christ. Notably, before savior was borrowed from French, Jesus was referred to as the Haelend, a native English word meaning “healer”.
Both save and savior acoustically indicate a strong, directed energy, spread over a wide area, that is pushed through a narrow opening. Like the similar-sounding savvy, the implication seems to be of gaining control over something. The second syllable “ior”, pronounced “yer”, indicates the power of an agent — someone doing something. Further, the presence of the “y” hints at a positive, almost youthful presence (compare saver, which has no “y” sound).
July 13th, 2007 at 4:25 am
This is just so full of synchronicity for me today.
I love this one!
July 13th, 2007 at 4:43 am
That’s great, Michelle! I’m so glad. Thanks for letting me know!
July 13th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Recently I ordered a PBS dvd entitled “Warrior Queen”. It arrived the day before this day’s word—-Savior—-and I watched it right away. Near the end of the movie, right before she heads into her final battle, Queen Boudicca says the word “sal-vay”, to her fellow warrior. I assume it means “be safe”, possibly? Sort of related to your word of the day, savior. Thank you for this fascinating site!
July 13th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
My pleasure, Lois! Writing these entries is always a great way to start my day.
Assuming Boudicca is speaking Latin in the movie, then I’m pretty sure “salve” (pronounced sal-vay) would be the imperative (command) form of salvere, so yes, “be safe” would be the perfect translation.
But shouldn’t she be speaking a Celtic language?…