5

"Salve" is sometimes heard from some people as a greeting.
If I don't misunderstood, "salve" is also used as an honorific salutation, often including the designated person's name, as in "Salve Fulano!" (without a comma), to state a merit or dignity of honor.

Why "salve" is used as a greeting, and why this can have a honorable connotation?

"Salve" é ás vezes ouvido ser dito por algumas pessoas como uma saudação.
Se não estou enganado, "salve" também é usado como uma saudação honorífica, geralmente incluindo o nome da pessoa alvo, como em "Salve Fulano!" (sem vírgula), para declarar um merecimento ou dignidade de honra.

Por que "salve" é usado como uma saudação, e ainda por que pode ter uma conotação honrosa?

Yuuza
  • 5,191
  • 7
  • 38
  • 71
  • 2
    Reminds me of *Salve Regina, mater misericoridae*, a Latin hymn to Mary. The Portuguese and Spanish would appear to derive directly from the Latin. – tchrist Aug 14 '15 at 21:06
  • Good question. I suddenly realize that I hardly hear anyone use "salve" in Brazil nowadays. It is still used In religious contexts, in some old songs ("Salve a loirinha!", "Salve o Corinthians", in our "National Anthem") but I would be surprised if I heard it from a youth. – Centaurus Aug 14 '15 at 22:46
  • @Centaurus Yeah, this appears more often on historical or honorific contexts. Nowadays is practically unused, except if the person is intentionally saying this way. – Yuuza Aug 14 '15 at 23:31
  • @Centaurus "Salve" is very commonly used amongst young men who listen to Brazilian Rap, specially in the form "mandar um salve". It is the name of a music by Racionais MCs and it can be found in some informal or slang dictionaries. – gmauch Aug 18 '15 at 16:15
  • @gmauch It may be used within a certain group, but generally speaking very few people use it in ordinary conversation. In the region where I live "Brazilian Rap" is somewhat restricted to the "favelas" and take my word for it, I very rarely hear it, An n-gram might help if one could be found in Portuguese. – Centaurus Aug 18 '15 at 16:31
  • @Centaurus I agree it is restricted to a group, but I wanted to say it's use is not rare in informal conversations and would not surprise me to hear that from a youth. – gmauch Aug 18 '15 at 17:46

1 Answers1

2

No latim, salve era a forma de saudar a uma pessoa (a várias pessoas dizia-se salvete). Obviamente nos contextos formais ainda há rasgos dessa língua, e salve parece ser uma das expressões que ficou.

gmauch
  • 3,816
  • 6
  • 32
  • 55
user0721090601
  • 1,683
  • 1
  • 12
  • 17