Etymology of Save

SAVE (v.)

From saven, “deliver from danger, rescue from peril.” Also from Old French sauver, the religious context “deliver from sin, admit to eternal life, gain salvation.” From PIE root *sol- “whole.”

Other definitions in popular usage: To “save face”—take action so as not to embarrass oneself. To “save one’s breath”—cease talking about something which is a lost cause. To “save time”—complete a task quickly, perhaps in a haphazard fashion, so as to be able to “spend time” doing something else more desirable. (See also: SALVAGE.)

SAVE (prep.)

From the French sauf, “except for,” “but.” As sauf si—“unless.”

SALVAGE (n.)

From the Old French salver, meaning “to save” (See also: SAVE (v.).) From 1640s, also “the payment for saving a ship and crew from wreck or capture,” from French salvage.

Sentences using SAVE:

• “I wanted to prove something to the world, and Poppy was my ticket. Who she would be to me, who I would be to her, how much I could love—I did not consider. Until, at last, I no longer cared about the world; I just wanted to keep her safe.”
• “But she had to be saved from me.”
• “You call my choices pointless, and me foolish for staying. And yes your favorite idiom: ‘I told you so.’ Except (sauf) there is no wreck to salvage, no breath, no time, no face to save. No home that feels like home. And yet, I would do it all again, I would stay for her a thousand billion times.”