salvo
pronunciation
How to pronounce salvo in British English:
UK [ˈsælvəʊ]
How to pronounce salvo in American English:
US [ˈsælvoʊ]
-
- Noun:
- an outburst resembling the discharge of firearms or the release of bombs
- rapid simultaneous discharge of firearms
- a sudden outburst of cheers
Word Origin
- salvo
- salvo: [16] When English originally acquired the word salvo, it was in the forms salve or salva, which came respectively from French salve and its source, Italian salva. This originally meant ‘salute, greeting’ (it came from salvē ‘hail’, the imperative form of Latin salvēre ‘be in good health’, which is related to English safe, salubrious, salute, save, etc).Important personages being greeted with a volley of gunfire, salva soon came to be used for such a discharge of guns (the related English salute has developed along the same lines – as in a ‘21-gun salute’). The form salvo, which emerged in the 17th century, is an alteration of salva.=> safe, salute, save
- salvo (n.)
- 1719, alteration of salva (1590s) "simultaneous discharge of guns," from Italian salva "salute, volley" (French salve, 16c., is from Italian), from Latin salve "hail!," literally "be in good health!," the usual Roman greeting, regarded as imperative of salvere "to be in good health," but properly vocative of salvus "healthy" (see safe (adj.)). The notion is of important visitors greeted with a volley of gunfire into the air; applied afterward to any concentrated fire from guns.
Example
- 1. Google 's decision to launch its own music store is the latest salvo in a wider conflict being waged by the titans of the tech world .
- 2. Study on salvo of submarine launched anti-submarine homing torpedoes for obscuring target scatterance .
- 3. The huge salvo threatened to escalate the already tense situation between israel and gaza militants into a full-blown conflict .
- 4. Starting with the simple tale of an ant , philosopher dan dennett unleashes a devastating salvo of ideas , making a powerful case for the existence of memes -- concepts that are literally alive .
- 5. Admiral eduard baltin , the former commander of russia 's black sea fleet , warned publicly in late august that if a conflict broke out over georgia , the russians could sink all us and nato warships currently operating in the black sea with a single salvo from a missile cruiser within 20 minutes .