salientadj.n.
/ˈseɪlɪənt/, U.S. /ˈseɪljənt/ A. adj.in extended use.1740 Gentleman's Mag. 10 460/1 [A little cur] salient on her nether feet, Extorts your very fav'rite bit.
1. figurative.1796 E. Burke Let. to Noble Lord in Wks. (1815) VIII. 46 He had in himself a salient, living spring, of generous and manly action.
a. Leaping, jumping; esp. of animals, saltatorial.Used by Sydney Smith apparently for ‘dancing’: cf. saltant adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > by locomotion > [adjective]
locomotive1621
salient1646
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > upward movement > leaping, springing, or jumping > [adjective]
leaping?a1400
jumping1567
saltant1601
vaultinga1616
salient1646
saltitant1654
springing1658
boundinga1667
saltating1852
upleaping1867
1646 Sir T. Browne Pseudodoxia Epidemica v. iii. 237 Salient animalls, and such as move by leaping. View more context for this quotation
1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. x. 41 Behold a straw besprinkled with some drops of his blood..leaped up on this Wilkinson... For, when this straw salient leaped first up into Wilkinson's lap [etc.].
1803 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. IV. 167 Salient Blenny.
1803 G. Shaw Gen. Zool. IV. 585 Salient Mackrel.
1826 S. Smith Wks. (1859) II. 89/1 With ten or a dozen stars and an Oonalaska chief, and followed by all vicious and salient London, Mrs. Clotworthy takes the field.
1848 S. Maunder Treasury Nat. Hist. Gloss. 804/1 Salient, moving by leaps, as frogs.
b. Of water: Jetting forth; leaping upwards.
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the world > the earth > water > fountain > [adjective] > jetting forth
salient1669
sallying1727
1669 R. Boyle Contin. New Exper. Physico-mech. iv. 17 We could take notice of the Lines describ'd by the Salient water, as the ejaculation of that Liquor grew still fainter and fainter.
1728 A. Pope Dunciad ii. 143 Who best can send on high The salient spout, fair-streaming to the sky.
1830 Ld. Tennyson Adeline in Poems 70 Do beating hearts of salient springs Keep measure with thine own?
1892 Ld. Lytton King Poppy ii. 289 Nor any better could that Dragon sage Hinder the sources of the salient springs From listening.
c. Of the pulse: Beating strongly. poetic.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > vascular system > circulation > pulsation > [adjective] > types of pulsation
slowa1398
stronga1398
throbbinga1450
systematical1658
long1671
natant1707
undose1707
vermiculose1707
exalted1742
salienta1791
inciduous1822
fluttering1834
sharp1843
sluggish1843
tricrotic1876
tricrotous1877
bounding1879
short1898
quadrigeminal1906
plateau1923
a1791 Blacklock Ode written when sick 15 The salient pulse of health gives o'er.
d. Mathematics. salient point (see quot. a1832).
ΚΠ
a1832 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) II. 122 The points of curves which have been called shooting or saliant points, when the function dy/ dx becomes discontinuous by changing suddenly of value.
2. Heraldry. Having the hind legs in the sinister base and the fore paws elevated near together in the dexter chief, as if in the act of leaping.
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society > communication > indication > insignia > heraldic devices collective > heraldic representations of creatures > [adjective] > specific movements of heraldic beasts
passantc1425
rampant1449
natantc1460
combatantc1500
issant1513
naiant1562
salient1562
cursant1572
naissant1572
vibrant1572
counter-salient1610
current1610
issuant1610
counter-passant1632
repassant1632
courant1727
contourné1728
1562 G. Legh Accedens of Armory 78 He beareth Argent, a Lion saliaunte,..this lifteth up hys right pawe to the right corner of the Escocheon, and the Rampande, lifteth up his left pawe to the same corner.
1614 W. Camden Remaines (rev. ed.) 193 A demy Ramme salient Argent.
1718 A. Nisbet Ess. Armories Index Salient, when any Beast is erected Bendways.
1864 C. Boutell Heraldry Hist. & Pop. (ed. 3) xx. 334 A pegasus salient.
3.
a. salient point [= French point saillant, modern Latin punctum saliens; the source of this use is Aristotle, Hist. Anim. vi. iii, Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ σημεῖον πηδᾳ̑ καὶ κινεῖται ὥσπερ ἔμψυχον, ‘this point [representing the heart in the egg] leaps and moves as alive’] : in old medical use, the heart as it first appears in an embryo (cf. quot. 1706); hence, the first beginning of life or motion; the starting-point of anything. Obsolete or archaic.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > beginning > [noun] > starting-point
terminus a quo1549
starting place1570
terma1628
salient motion1664
salient pointa1682
punctum saliens1695
starting point1782
Adam and Eve1793
starting ground1802
point of departure1804
baseline1836
point de départ1848
zero1849
start point1860
jumping-board1878
jumping-off board1914
jumping-off point1927
starting block1932
square one1952
a1682 Sir T. Browne Let. to Friend (1690) 4 His End not unlike his Beginning, when the salient Point scarce affords a sensible motion.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Punctum Saliens, a little Speck or Cloud that appears in a Broodegg, and seems to leap before the Chicken begins to be hatch'd.]
1712 R. Blackmore Creation vi. 285 The Salient Point, so first is call'd the Heart.
1769 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) II. xxxv. 31 That was the salient point, from which all the mischiefs..of the present reign took life.
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. II. 7 The heart is the salient point of the circulation.
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. II. i. v. 42 What a progress, since the first salient-point of the Breton Committee.
1869 E. M. Goulburn Pursuit of Holiness iv. 39 What is the salient point, the spring, of a virtue?
b. Similarly, †salient motion.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > order, sequence, or succession > beginning > [noun] > starting-point
terminus a quo1549
starting place1570
terma1628
salient motion1664
salient pointa1682
punctum saliens1695
starting point1782
Adam and Eve1793
starting ground1802
point of departure1804
baseline1836
point de départ1848
zero1849
start point1860
jumping-board1878
jumping-off board1914
jumping-off point1927
starting block1932
square one1952
1664 N. Ingelo Bentivolio & Urania: 2nd Pt. vi. 209 The early bud of young Life first appears in a salient Motion.
4. Of an angle: Pointing outward, as an ordinary angle of a polygon (opposed to re-entrant); chiefly in Fortification, ‘formed by two lines of works meeting and pointing towards the country’ (Voyle), i.e. away from the centre of the fortification. So salient point, etc.
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the world > space > shape > angularity > [adjective] > constituting an angle > projecting
salient1687
sortant1842
resalient1870
1687 J. Richards Jrnl. Siege Buda 19 We pierc'd the Wall of the Lower Town looking into St. Paul's Valley, and carry'd on a 3d Angle Salliant.
1702 Mil. Dict. at Bonnet A Work consisting of two Faces, which make an Angle Saillant in the Nature of a small Ravelin.
1739 C. Labelye Short Acct. Piers Westm. Bridge 79 Each Point, or Saliant Angle of each of the Piers.
1812 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1837) IX. 12 When the attack upon the salient angle..succeeded.
1816 R. Jameson Treat. External Characters Minerals (ed. 2) 170 In ordinary crystals, the faces adjacent to each other always form salient, and never re-entering angles.
1838 Penny Cycl. X. 375/2 We obtain about 360 yards for the distance between the salient points F and E of the two bastions.
1876 G. E. Voyle Mil. Dict. (ed. 3) Salient Order of Battle, an order of battle, the front of the army being formed on a salient or outward angle.
5.
a. Of material things: Standing above or beyond the general surface or outline; jutting out; prominent among a number of objects.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > unevenness > projection or prominence > [adjective]
steepc1000
tooting?c1225
strutting1387
prominent?1440
extant1540
eminent?1541
pouting1563
poking1566
out1576
egregious1578
promontory1579
out-pointed1585
buttinga1593
outjetting1598
perking1598
jettying1609
juttying1609
out-jutting1611
outstanding1611
upsticking1611
out-shooting1622
jutting1624
outgrowing1625
rank1625
toting1645
projectinga1652
porrected1653
protruded1654
protruding1654
upcast1658
protending1659
jettinga1661
raised1663
starting1680
emersed1686
exerted1697
projective1703
jet-out1709
exorbitant1715
sticking1715
foreright1736
poky1754
perked-up1779
salient1789
prouda1800
overdriven1812
extrusive1816
stand-up1818
shouldering1824
jutty1827
outflung1830
sticky-out1839
sticking-up1852
outreaching1853
protrusive1858
out-thrusting1869
stickout1884
protrudent1891
1789 E. Darwin Bot. Garden I. 32 He..Crowns with high Calpè Europe's saliant strand.
1834 H. McMurtrie tr. G. Cuvier Animal Kingdom (abridged ed.) 268 The hinge always furnished with salient and well-marked teeth.
1844 A. W. Kinglake Eothen vi. 93 The town is on a salient point.
1854 C. D. Badham Prose Halieutics 451 Large salient eyes.
1859 T. J. Gullick & J. Timbs Painting 201 The salient parts of the body and limbs should always be seen through the drapery.
1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 229 The salient physical features of the spot.
1881 St. G. Mivart Cat 480 The Mastoid is never salient.
b. Of immaterial things, qualities, etc.: Standing out from the rest; prominent, conspicuous; often in salient point (cf. A. 3). Also Psychology, standing out or prominent in consciousness.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > that which is important > outstanding
jewel in the crown1615
jewel1673
prominence1826
salient point1841
highlight1850
high spot1894
salient1936
society > communication > manifestation > manifestness > [adjective] > strikingly
notablea1398
staring?a1425
loud1535
gross1581
strong1583
signal1591
conspicuous1604
marked1620
remarked1623
ranka1640
signalized1652
bold1678
flaming1706
glaring1706
telegraphic1809
salient1841
howling1865
insistent1868
rampageous1889
the mind > mental capacity > memory > [adjective] > worthy of remembrance, memorable
memoriablea1450
rememberablec1450
well-remembered1482
memorable1483
memorial?1504
memorousa1513
never-to-be-forgotten1586
rememorablea1641
unforgettable1806
nameable1858
memorious1882
salient1938
the mind > mental capacity > psychology > developmental psychology > acquisition of knowledge > capacity for retaining experience > [adjective] > prominent in memory
salient1938
1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes iii. 177 The great salient points are admirably seized.
1846 G. Grote Hist. Greece II. i. xx. 87 His personal ascendancy..is the salient feature in the picture.
1863 A. P. Stanley Lect. Jewish Church I. viii. 179 Some few salient points emerge full of eternal significance.
1873 J. A. Symonds Stud. Greek Poets xii. 401 In the midst of our activity we have so little that is salient or characteristic in our life.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People vii. §7. 421 No salient peculiarity seems to have left its trace on the memory of his contemporaries.
1938 H. D. Spoerl tr. Stern Gen. Psychol. from Personalistic Standpoint iv. 74 Dissonance is constant by being augmented or diminished. All experience consequently tends to become either salient against or embedded with the totality.
1938 G. W. Allport Personality xx. 553 The most important of all facts about consciousness is that it is graded; sometimes it stands out, as it were, against the diffuse background of personal life. It is salient... The more salient an experience, the greater its objective meaning.
1953 C. I. Hovland et al. Communication & Persuasion v. 161 A communication will produce more immediate change when the opposing group norms are at a low level of salience than when they are highly salient.
1965 T. M. Newcomb et al. Social Psychol. ii. 37 We shall use the term ‘salient’ to describe stored information that has been prompted to the forefront of the individual's conscious thought.
6. salient pole, a type of field pole used in electrical machinery in which the energizing coil is wound on a pole-piece projecting inside the yoke of a stator assembly or outside the cone of a rotor assembly.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > electromagnetic radiation > electricity > electrical engineering > operation of machinery > [noun] > terminal point of machine
pole1777
salient pole1886
1886 S. P. Thompson Dynamo-electr. Machinery (ed. 2) vii. 121 This pattern differs from that of the better known ‘A’ Gramme in using salient poles instead of having the ‘consequent poles’ at the middle points of the electro~magnets.
1905 G. F. Goodchild & C. F. Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 632/2 Salient Pole, when the poles of a dynamo project inward towards the armature, from a closed ring of iron, and are each magnetised by one coil only, they are termed Salient Poles, as distinguished from Consequent Poles.
1910 Hawkins' Electr. Dict. Salient Poles, the poles of a dynamo or motor field magnet occurring at the ends of the pole pieces, as distinguished from consequent poles.
1920 Whittaker's Electr. Engineer's Pocket-bk. (ed. 4) 169 The turbo-alternator is now the standard a.c. generator, and is almost invariably built with a cylindrical (or non-salient pole) rotor, the salient pole construction being confined to slow-speed alternators and water turbine-driven alternators.
1962 Newnes Conc. Encycl. Electr. Engin. 337/2 The turbo-alternator is essentially a high-speed construction..for coupling to steam or gas turbines..the salient-pole alternator is suited to..lower speeds and may therefore be driven by water turbines or internal-combustion engines.
1970 J. Shepherd et al. Higher Electr. Engin. (ed. 2) x. 331 An alternative arrangement to having uniform slotting on both sides of the air-gap is to have salient poles around which are wound concentrated coils to provide the field winding. The salient poles may be on either the stator or the rotor.
B. n. Fortification.
1. A salient angle or part of a work.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > [noun] > construction of defensive works > angles
salient1828
shoulder angle1835
re-entrant1862
1828 J. M. Spearman Brit. Gunner 209 If Lunettes are constructed beyond the saliants of the bastions and ravelins.
1868 A. W. Kinglake Invasion of Crimea III. xvii. 397 The fort was..so formed that it threw out a salient upon each of the two tongues of land.
1897 H. Porter Campaigning with Grant in Cent. Mag. June 210 The fort was an enclosed work, and formed a salient upon the enemy's line.
2.
a. A narrow projection or spur of land extending from a larger feature; a spur-like area of land, esp. one held by a line of offence or defence, as in trench-warfare; spec. (frequently with the and capital initial) that at Ypres in western Belgium, the scene of severe fighting in the war of 1914–18.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > [noun] > landform > projecting
nook?a1425
point?c1475
snoutc1540
excursiona1626
spur1851
salient1864
odd1869
society > armed hostility > armed encounter > battlefield > [noun] > front or front line > salient
salient1864
bulge1927
1864 W. G. Mitchell in War of Rebellion (U.S. War Dept.) (1891) 1st Ser. XXXVI. i. 359 Conducted General Wright to a point near the Salient we had captured.
1903 A. F. Mockler-Ferryman Milit. Sketching & Reconnaissance ix. 88 Select..a line of level to be assumed as a crest-line, so situated that when drawn-in it will show the shape of all the principal salients and re-entrants.
1914 War Illustr. 5 Dec. 366/1 The British salient at Ypres fascinated the Kaiser.
1915 N.Y. Tribune 8 May 9/2 The salient at Ypres always has been dangerous. Formerly it made a semi-circular loop, with Ypres a little above the centre. After this successful movement of the Germans it took the shape of the eye in a hook and eye.
1918 E. S. Farrow Dict. Mil. Terms Salient..in map reading, a projection from the side of a hill or mountain, running out and down from the main feature.
1920 Bairnsfather Case 113 Ypres, which at that time to [sic] every soldier outside the salient, was regarded as the most fearful quarter on the whole of the Western Front.
1927 R. H. Mottram Spanish Farm Trilogy 238 Poperinghe was the railhead for that essentially English battle-field, the Ypres Salient.
1927 ‘S. Rohmer’ Morn of Madness iii The last time I saw him—coming out of the salient with what was left of the Irish Guards.
1932 D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase iv. 62 The only young Endicott was killed in the Salient.
1944 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 2 Oct. 9/4 The British drove five miles north of the village of Oss at the north-western corner of their salient to the Maas.
1972 K. Bonfiglioli Don't point that Thing at Me xix. 172 I had almost succeeded in becoming..‘Mad Jack’ Mortdecai, V.D. and Scar, the ice-cool toast of the Ypres Salient.
1974 News & Courier (Charleston, S. Carolina) 28 Apr. a1/6 An officer identified in a national radio interview as Yoav, commander of the southern salient.
b. figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [noun] > that which is important > outstanding
jewel in the crown1615
jewel1673
prominence1826
salient point1841
highlight1850
high spot1894
salient1936
1936 Discovery Sept. 279 There are too many salients in the front line of social progress and it is the duty of the industrial psychologist to smooth these away.
1969 Daily Tel. 31 Oct. 18 With this week's pamphlet on ‘The Police and the Citizen’..he will be taking the council into a very hot salient indeed.
Derivatives
ˈsaliently adv. in a salient manner.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > manifestation > manifestness > [adverb] > in a strikingly manifest manner
louda1400
loudly1589
grossly1593
signally1598
conspicuously1626
remarkedly1656
staringlya1670
glaringly1709
illustriously1725
noticeably1845
saliently1847
staring1850
blatantly1878
bulgingly1896
1847–54 in Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang.
1868 E. Edwards Life Sir W. Ralegh I. Introd. 30 His name stands out saliently in several events which serve to mark epochs..in English history.
1870 Contemp. Rev. 16 159 They stand saliently in the van of civilization.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1909; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1562