Salic

[sal-ik, sey-lik]

adjective

of or relating to the Salian Franks.

Also Salique.

Origin of Salic

1540–50; < Medieval Latin Salicus, equivalent to Late Latin Sal(iī) (plural) tribal name + -icus -ic

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for salic

Historical Examples of salic

It was no longer a question of Salic law—a dispute whether a woman could reign.
Clare Avery
Emily Sarah Holt
The texts of the Salic law give us incontrovertible evidence.
The Common Law
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
By the Salic law no woman or descendant of a woman could occupy the throne.
What Is Man? And Other Stories
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
But the common and vulgar fool says: Must observe the Salic law.
The book of the ladies
Pierre de Bourdeille Brantme
This shows how the Salic law was not kept, except as to the crown.
The book of the ladies
Pierre de Bourdeille Brantme

British Dictionary definitions for salic

salic

adjective

(of rocks and minerals) having a high content of silica and alumina

Word Origin for salic

C20: from s (ilica) + al (umina) + -ic

Salic

Salique

adjective

of or relating to the Salian Franks or the Salic law

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for salic

Salic

adj.

"based on or contained in the law code of the Salian Franks," 1540s, from French Salique, from Medieval Latin Salicus, from the Salian Franks, a tribe that once lived near the Zuider Zee, the ancestors of the Merovingian kings, literally "those living near the river Sala" (modern Ijssel).

Salic Law, code of law of Germanic tribes, was invoked 1316 by Philip V of France to exclude a woman from succeeding to the throne of France (and later to combat the French claims of Edward III of England), but the precise meaning of the passage is unclear.