English

Adjective

salty ‎(comparative saltier, superlative saltiest)

1. Tasting of salt.
2. Containing salt.
3. (figuratively) Coarse, provocative, earthy; said of language.
4. (figuratively) Experienced, especially used to indicate a veteran of the naval services; salty dog (from salt of the sea).
   • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

     There's a sailor's tavern at the end of the street where I could find companionship if I chose (one catches salty boys going in and out at any hour) but only music matters to me now.

5. (US slang) Irritated, annoyed; from sharp, spicy flavor of salt.
   • 1946, Mezz Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues, Payback Press 1999, page 61:

     Ray and Fuzzy were salty with our unhip no-playing piano player, because she broke time on the piano so bad that the strings yelled whoa to the hammers.

   • 1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Holloway House Publishing, page 162:

     I want to beg your pardon for making you salty that night.

6. (linguistics) Pertaining to those dialects of Catalan, spoken in the Balearic Islands and along the coast of Catalonia, that use definitive articles descended from the Latin ipse ‎(“self”) instead of the Latin ille ‎(“that”).

Coordinate terms

• (irritated attitude): sassy

Derived terms

• (experienced sailor): salty dog

Translations

Anagrams

• slaty