Noun: saliva
| Singular | saliva |
| Plural | salivas; salivae; salivæ |
Sample Sentences
Nouns inflected like saliva
saliva,
sclera,
subpoena,
persona,
panacea,
amoebula,
cannula,
corolla,
hydrotheca,
scrofula,
fovea,
flora,
hydra,
testa,
vulva,
amebula,
ballista,
hyperbola,
infant formula,
endotesta, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. A learned borrowing from Latin salīva (“spittle”), replacing or merging with Middle English salive, salve (“saliva”), from the same Latin source. Further origin uncertain. Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *salw-, *sal- (“dirt, dirty”), cognate with Old English salu (“dark, dusky”). More at sallow.
2. Displaced Middle English slaver, slavere ("saliva"; whence Modern English slaver); and Middle English spyttle, spetel, spatel, spotel ("saliva"; whence Modern English spittle, spettle, spattle). See: Middle English Nouns '
salive', Old English Nouns '
salu'.