Meaning

noun a compound formed by replacing hydrogen in an acid by a metal (or a radical that acts like a metal)

noun white crystalline form of especially sodium chloride used to season and preserve food

noun negotiations between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics opened in 1969 in Helsinki designed to limit both countries' stock of nuclear weapons

originBorrowed from Yiddish זאַלץ (zalts, “salt”), a Jewish Ashkenazi metonymic occupational surname for a salt producer or seller.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0