salt-free

the compound 'salt-free' is a modern english formation built from two ancient germanic roots. 'salt' descends from a common proto-indo-european root séh₂ls, referring to the vital mineral, a meaning preserved unchanged for millennia. 'free' originates from a root meaning 'to love' or 'dear', which in germanic developed the sense of 'not enslaved' and later broadened to mean 'lacking' or 'exempt from' something undesirable. the logical combination is transparent: 'free from salt' directly conveys the absence of the substance, a construction commonly used in dietary and product labeling to denote the removal or exclusion of salt.

Structure: salt (substance) + free (without) salt (old english, from proto-germanic saltą, meaning the crystalline substance) + free (old english frēo, from proto-germanic frijaz, meaning 'not in bondage, exempt from')