saltwater

See also: salt water

English

A small saltwater swimming pool at Edithburgh, South Australia

Etymology

From Middle English saltwater, salte water, equivalent to salt +‎ water. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Soaltwoater (“saltwater”), West Frisian sâltwetter (“saltwater”), Dutch zoutwater (“saltwater”), German Low German Soltwater (“saltwater”), German Salzwasser (“saltwater”), Danish saltvand (“saltwater”), Swedish saltvatten (“saltwater”), Icelandic saltvatn (“saltwater”).

Noun

saltwater (countable and uncountable, plural saltwaters)

1. Alternative form of salt water

Hypernyms

• water

Hyponyms

• seawater

Derived terms

• saltwater bush (Rachicallis americana)
• saltwater crocodile
• saltmarsh sparrow
• saltwater taffy

Adjective

saltwater (not comparable)

1. New Keynesian or Keynesian, in reference to macroeconomics and economics departments on the East Coast and West Coast of the United States of America.
   • 2004, Arnold Kling, Learning Economics, 1st edition, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 29:

     Sweetwater and Saltwater economists tend to differ on policy issues.

   • 2007, David Colander, The Making of an Economist, Redux, 2nd edition, Princeton University Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 228:

     These findings suggest that the divide between fresh and saltwater departments has all but disappeared. The ideological battle is over.

   • 2012, John Quiggin, Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us, Princeton University Press (expanded paperback ed., 1st ed. from 2010), →ISBN, page 86.

     Despite their often heated debates, saltwater and freshwater economists agreed on one fundamental point: that macroeconomic analysis must be based on the foundations of neoclassical microeconomics.

   • 2015, Meghnad Desai, Hubris: Why Economists Failed to Predict the Crisis and How to Avoid the Next One, 1st edition, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 191:

     In the US, economists were said to be from sweetwater departments – from Chicago and Minnesota, where they were new classical – and from saltwater departments – MIT, Harvard and Yale, where they continued to be Keynesians who did not concede the ground totally to the new classical economists.

   • 2016, Philippa Malmgren, Signals: How Everyday Signs Can Help Us Navigate the World's Turbulent Economy, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

     A tax rate of say, 91 per cent – as suggested by the very saltwater Nobel Prizewinner, economist Paul Krugman – would force Americans to hand over a much larger proportion of their income than most are comfortable with.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “both senses”): freshwater, sweetwater

References

• “saltwater”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “saltwater”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.