ˈsalt-ˌcellar
Forms: 5–6 saler, (5 sellere, seler, 6 celler), 5–8 seller, 6–7 sellar, 7– cellar.
[f. salt n.1 + saler (which has been assimilated in spelling to cellar).]
a. A small vessel used on the table for holding salt.
| 1434 E.E. Wills (1882) 102 A feir salt saler of peautre with a feyre knoppe. 1445 Will in Madox Formul. Anglic. (1702) 434 Duas Saltsellers Argenteas. 1483 Cath. Angl. 317/2 A Salte seler. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 269 Take thy salte seller in thy lefte hande. 1566 in Peacock Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866) 53 A salt celler for salt. 1633 Wotton in Reliq. (1672) 464, I send you..a triangular Salt celler. 1669 Woodhead St. Teresa ii. 269 A Sister..found at last a little Salt-celler in a Chest. 1729 Swift Direct. Serv. i. Wks. 1751 XIV. 23 Fold up the Table-cloth with the Salt in it, then shake the Salt out into the Salt-cellar to serve next Day. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. iv, Putting down the glasses and salt-cellars as if she were knocking at the door. |
| attrib. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 60 Loke..þy salte sellere lydde towche not thy salt bye. |
b. In phrases as in
salt n.1 7 b.
| 1609 Dekker Gull's Horn-bk. Wks. (Grosart) II. 244 You may giue any Iustice of peace, or yong Knight (if he sit but one degree towards the Equinoctiall of the Salt-seller) leaue to pay for the wine. 1645 Milton Colast. 19 That which never yet afforded corn of savour to his noddle, the Salt-seller was not rubb'd. 1648 Herrick Hesp., His Age vii, If we can meet, and so conferre, Both by a shining Salt-seller. 1843 James Forest Days ix, We have no salt-cellar here, to make a distinction between highest and lowest. 1847 Lytton Lucretia 32 This green banquet of nature, in which at least no man sits below the salt-cellar. |
c. colloq. Each of the pronounced hollows at the base of a thin neck. (Usu. with reference to young women.)
| 1870 O. Logan Before Footlights 26, I was a child of the most uninteresting age..a tall scraggy girl, with red elbows, and salt cellars at my collar-bones, which were always exposed, for fashion at that time made girls of this age uncover neck and arms. 1880 F. Belton Random Recoll. Old Actor vi. 87 The bones of her elbows were painfully prominent, with enormous salt-cellar hollows in her neck. 1913 ‘O. Onions’ Story of Louie i. i. 25 The copper-haired girl with the long thin neck and the ‘salt-cellars’ showing through her white flannel blouse. 1913 Queen 17 May 35 (Advt.), ‘Saltcellars’ and thinness of the neck and shoulders. 1964 P. White Burnt Ones 162 She was so thin, but he loved her even for her salt-cellars. |