Pronunciation: [sê-'lu-bri-ês or (British) sê-lyu-bri-ês]

Definition: Favorable or conducive to health; attractive and prosperous (Australian).

Usage: Today's word sounds much like a combination of "salacious" and "lugubrious" but don't be deceived: it bears a purely positive sense of health enhancement. The Oxford English Dictionary allows "unsalubrious" and the noun in all dialects is "salubrity."

Suggested Usage: Of course we all prefer living in a salubrious climate and avoid foods with unsalubrious fats and cholesterol (some fats are salubrious). A weekend with the children might be a salubrious respite from work but then a night at the opera could be a salubrious respite from the kids. According to Macquarie's Dictionary, one may live in a salubrious suburb in Australia if it is but attractive and prosperous. Of course, prosperity does promote health.

Etymology: Today's word comes from Latin salubris "healthful, wholesome," the adjective from salus "health." The original Proto-Indo-European root, *sol- meant "whole, entire" and its remnants are found in such words as "solo" and "sole" from Latin solus "alone (all one)." Suffixed with a [d] as in Latin solidus "solid," it came to English via French as "solder," "soldier," and "solid." Suffixed with –v, it gave Latin salvare "to save" which changed to sauver "save" in French and was borrowed as "save" and "safe" by English—and directly from Latin as "salvation." The initial [s] became [h] in Greek, giving holos "whole" found in "hologram" and "catholic," from katholikos "general, universal" based on kata "in accord with"+ holos "whole."