save
Definitions
General English
- verb to stop something from being damaged
- verb to keep things such as money, food or other articles so that you can use them later
- verb not to waste something such as time or money
- verb to stop someone from being hurt or killed
Accounting
- verb to choose not to spend money
Commerce
- verb not to waste, to use less
- verb to store data on a computer disk
Computing
- verb to store data or a program on an auxiliary storage device
Cricket
- verb to be in a position to prevent the batsmen from taking the stated number of runs; e.g., a player stationed to ‘save the two’ is intended to deter batsmen from going for a second run after they have run a single
Electronics
- To copy or store data from a temporary area, such as RAM, to a permanent medium such as a hard drive or optical disc. Each time a save is performed, the previous version of the same data or file is replaced with the most recent. Many programs can be set to save at fixed intervals, as any work done between saves is usually lost if there is a system malfunction or failure.
- A command or menu item which produces a save (1). Also, to issue such a command, or select this item from a menu.
Military
- verb to rescue a person from danger
- verb to keep something for future use
Origin & History of “save”
English has two distinct words save, which come from the same ultimate source, but have entered the language along very different routes. That source was Latin salvus ‘unharmed’, ancestor of English safe. Its ablative form salvō was used as a virtual preposition, in the sense ‘without injury to, without prejudice to’, hence ‘except’, and this passed into English via Old French sauf as the preposition and conjunction save (13th c.). The verb save (13th c.) goes back via Anglo-Norman sauver to late Latin salvāre (source also of English salvage, salver, and salvation (13th c.)), which in turn was derived from salvus. The derivative saviour (13th c.) comes via Old French sauveour from late Latin salvātor.
