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Peter Aitken wrote:
I got to thinking about the word "salad" and what it means. It was
surprisingly hard to come up with even a halfway good definition Salads
can
contain meat, fish, vegetables, or fruit in seemingly endless
combinations.
They are usually cold or tepid but can also be warm (German potato salad
for
example). Then I thought that the defining characteristic might be a
sauce
or dressing that has something sour as an important ingredient - but if
I
toss tomatoes with just olive oil, salt, and pepper is that not a salad?
So,
I am stumped and thought I would throw this out for discussion.

My Websters dictionary says works for me. Here's the definition of
the word "salad" and it does seem to imply that a salad's defining
characteristic is a dressing of some sort.

salad

\Sal"ad\ (s[a^]l"ad), n. [F. salade, OIt. salata, It. insalata, fr. salare
to salt,
fr. L. sal salt. See Salt, and cf. Slaw.] 1. A preparation of vegetables,
as lettuce,
celery, water cress, onions, etc., usually dressed with salt, vinegar,
oil, and spice,
and eaten for giving a relish to other food; as, lettuce salad; tomato
salad, etc.

Leaves eaten raw are termed salad. --I. Watts.

2. A dish composed of chopped meat or fish, esp. chicken or lobster, mixed
with lettuce
or other vegetables, and seasoned with oil, vinegar, mustard, and other
condiments; as,
chicken salad; lobster salad.


I dunno, Stan - this definition means that canned tuna mixed with mayo is
not tuna salad unless you add celery or another veg.

Maybe salad is like pornography as described by a judge: I can't define it
but I know it when I see it."


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.