Meaning

noun (military) the part of the line of battle that projects closest to the enemy

adjective having a quality that thrusts itself into attention

adjective (of angles) pointing outward at an angle of less than 180 degrees

originThe heraldic sense “leaping” and the sense “projecting outward” are borrowed from Latin salientem, the accusative form of saliēns (“springing, leaping”), present participle of saliō (“leap, spring”, verb). The senses “prominent” and “pertinent” are relatively recent, and derive from the phrase salient point, which is a calque of the Latin punctum saliēns, a translation of Aristotle's term for the…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0