the.com/sauce
The liquid proof that a dish was loved, not just cooked.
means A flavorful liquid or semi-liquid accompaniment served with food to add moisture, taste, or richness — and informally, a slang term for cheeky boldness.
from From Old French 'sauce,' tracing back to Latin 'salsa,' meaning 'salted,' from 'sal' (salt) — the same root behind 'salad' and 'salary.' Originally sauces were literally salted mixtures used to preserve and flavor food before refrigeration existed. The slang sense of 'sauce' meaning impudence or attitude emerged centuries later, the logic being that someone 'saucy' adds unwanted flavor or spice to a conversation — a cousin, loosely, to how we still say someone's remark had 'bite.'
- same root
- sausage and salad also come from salsa
- five mothers
- French cuisine built itself on five mother sauces
- slang shift
- swagger sense of sauce started in 2010s hip hop
- oldest condiment
- garum, fermented fish sauce, predates Rome itself