In all public meetings or private addresses, use those
forms of salutation, reverence, and decency usual
amongst the most sober persons. --Jer. Taylor.
Syn: Greeting; salute; address.
Usage: {Salutation}, {Greeting}, {Salute}. Greeting is the
general word for all manner of expressions of
recognition, agreeable or otherwise, made when persons
meet or communicate with each other. A greeting may be
hearty and loving, chilling and offensive, or merely
formal, as in the opening sentence of legal documents.
Salutation more definitely implies a wishing well, and
is used of expressions at parting as well as at
meeting. It is used especially of uttered expressions
of good will. Salute, while formerly and sometimes
still in the sense of either greeting or salutation,
is now used specifically to denote a conventional
demonstration not expressed in words. The guests
received a greeting which relieved their
embarrassment, offered their salutations in
well-chosen terms, and when they retired, as when they
entered, made a deferential salute.
Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the
uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings
in the markets. --Luke xi. 43.
When Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the
babe leaped in her womb. --Luke i. 41.
I shall not trouble my reader with the first
salutes of our three friends. --Addison.