Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tray for serving food or drinks.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who salves or cures, or one who pretends to cure: as, a quacksalver.
- n. One who salves or saves goods, a vessel, etc., from destruction or loss by fire, shipwreck, etc.
- n. A tray, especially a large and heavy one, upon which anything is offered to a person, as in the service of the table.
Wiktionary
- n. One who salves or cures.
- n. One who pretends to cure; quacksalver.
- n. One who salves or saves goods, etc. from destruction or loss.
- n. A tray used to display or serve food.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete One who salves, or uses salve as a remedy; hence, a quacksalver, or quack.
- n. A salvor.
- n. A tray or waiter on which anything is presented.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a tray (or large plate) for serving food or drinks; usually made of silver
Etymologies
- Alteration of Spanish salva ("plate, foretasting of viands prior to serving"), from salvar ("to save, taste food for one's master"), from Latin salvō ("save", v). More at save. (Wiktionary)
- Alteration of French salve, from Spanish salva, tasting of food to detect poison, salver, from salvar, to save, taste food to detect poison, from Late Latin salvāre, to save; see salvage. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The plant continues in blossom from June till the first frosts wither the leaves; it is far less coarse than the potatoe; the flower, when full blown, is about the size of a half crown, and quite flat; I think it is what you call salver-shaped: it delights in light loamy soil, growing on the upturned roots of fallen trees, where the ground is inclined to be sandy.”
“On a salver was a stack of programs for different ballets.”
“Stafford near Dunrobin Castle in Sutherlandshire, in which the usual ringent form of the corolla was replaced by the form called salver-shaped.”
Vegetable Teratology An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants
“He held a salver in his hand, and on the salver was a letter.”
“While he was speaking the servant entered with a salver, and on the salver was a note.”
Robert Orange Being a Continuation of the History of Robert Orange
“The salver, which is 18.75 inches (abou 48 cm) in diameter, is decorated with figures from mythology.”
“The name "salver," commonly applied to a tray or waiter, seems to have originated from the old custom of tasting meats before they were served, to salve or save their employers from harm.”
“The photos were genuine, but characterised by the fact that they were all taken in the middle of dinner and Mr Mifsud was standing behind the celebrities, usually holding a silver salver of mixed seasonal vegetables.”
The Guardian: Who's the sycophant in the black? | Harry Pearson
“The picture turns out to be as circular as the salver.”
“If Salome cannot have him alive, she will enjoy him dead: in return for her dancing, she requires Herod to let her have his head on a silver salver.”
The Guardian: The Comedy of Errors; Salome; Lift: Life Streaming
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘salver’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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Davenport
words looked up recently from reading Guy Davenport
flenite, sampan, provender, comitatus, cycladic, surd, scialytic, lignite, plangencies, fugal, zamindary, macaque and 112 more...
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Jesse's random
bathos, dragoman, tessellated, escutcheon, eikon, mondaine, basilisk, ciborium, rubric, machicolation, jet, defalcation and 198 more...
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A Garnish of Pewter
A list of pewter items and wares gleaned from the literature, or found listed for sale in antique catalogs - from spoons to stills and chamber pots to church cups. A synonym for the larger, heavier...
teapot, porringer, flagon, wine funnel, pepper shaker, broth bowl, basin, candlesticks, tankard, beaker, measure, chalice and 155 more...
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GCI
spinster, maiden, happy-go-lucky, homonym, ill-at-ease, saw red, out of sorts, hot under the collar, taken aback, pen-names, alias, shoelaces and 378 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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Vocabulary
Words I come across while reading.
talus, echelon, onanistic, cabochon, avocation, charnel, moue, portentous, prolixity, astringent, hoary, patina and 165 more...
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wickedwitch's list
lll
alit, plinth, eclat, diaphanous, portico, nival, daedal, apse, fossa, pellet, avail, midge and 143 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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Henderson the Rain King
Words taken from Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.
yellowback, unkillable, swack, hoarfrost, decapotable, brownian, mackinaw, taxwise, oratorio, picaresque, masonite, catalpa and 109 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1387 more...
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The Confidence Man
Words to remember from Melville's "The Confidence Man"
chevalier, hawk, unalloyed, ex-officio, scruple, pertinacity, epithet, gilt, bedizen, embrasure, escritoire, squaw and 278 more...
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The Diamond Age
Words from the novel by Neal Stephenson.
primer, nanosite, fabricule, aether, artifex, diamondoid, transpicuous, source, tetrahedral, lithocule, nanophone, espadrille and 68 more...
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People
uxorial, frippet, chit, pink-collar, lipstick lesbian, demimonde, dulcinea, spaewife, cotquean, muliebrile, debutante, bellibone and 18 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for salver.
jaime_d From "A Field of Snow on a Slope of the Rosenberg" by Guy Davenport. Jan 19, 2010