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Spanish Word of the Day Archive
Saturday January 12, 2008
salsa, noun:
sauce; Salsa
Salsa is the basic word for sauce or gravy:
una salsa de chocolate
a chocolate sauce
You’re just as likely to come across it referring to salsa, the dance. Originally from Latin America, this style of music includes many different rhythms and melodies, from mambo to rumba to chachachá. What they all have in common is that the rhythm is essentially Afro-Caribbean.
Some people claim that the name comes from a Cuban song - Échale salsita Put some sauce on it - which mentioned the songwriter’s favourite type of sausage, which needed some sauce on it! The term really took off when a New York record company marketed it in the sixties as a way of describing a popular style of Latino dancing. It is now, of course, a worldwide phenomenon.
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