English → Latin
“salary” in Latin
mercēspay, wages, reward; revenue, income; chastisement, punishment, penaltysalāriusOf or pertaining to salt.commoduscomfortable, commodious, suitable, useful, convenient, becoming; opportune, timely, tidy; pleasant, friendlylūculentusfull of light, brilliant, bright, splendid; distinguished, excellentlargusabundant, copious, plentiful, large, abounding in something; bountiful, liberal, munificent; generous with, lavish oftenuisthin, slender, slim, lank; especially; fine, rare, thin; pure, clear, not coarse; weak, feeble, tenuousexiguusstrict, exact; paltry, inadequate, small, scanty, slight, little
The English word salary itself goes back to Latin argentum, through salārium.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
salary
merces: mercedis praemium (Cic.): salarium (Suet.): commoda, plur., (Cic., Vitr.). A good salary, luculentum, largum, salarium: a poor or small salary, tenue, exiguum, salarium: to fix a salary, salarium alicui constituere, deceruere (Pand.): a public salary is paid, publice salarium, merces, datur, solvitur.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for salary?
- The usual Latin words for “salary” are mercēs, salārius, commodus; also lūculentus, largus, tenuis. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.