salume

noun

sa·​lu·​me sə-ˈlü-(ˌ)mā 

plural salumi sə-ˈlü-mē 

: an Italian prepared meat (such as prosciutto, mortadella, or pancetta) that is usually salted and cured

Pork is the main meat used for salumi, but meat from a surprising range of other animals is also used—cow, veal, lamb, goat, wild animals.

—Gillian Riley

Chris came back and put the meat on ice, then we took a quick tour of the cold rooms where the salumi were aged.

—Novella Carpenter

Deeply savory, tantalizingly aromatic, often fatty and rich, salumi are a testament to the unstudied opulence of Italy's so-called peasant foods. … And each salume … speaks to a unique collision of geography and tradition, a centuries-long history of human innovation.

—Niki Achitoff-Gray

Examples of salume in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Sit outside in the square and feast on Tuscan specialities – the veggie dishes are superb, from pumpkin flans to artichokes smothered in lardo (a super-fatty salume) and pecorino. —Julia Buckley, Travel + Leisure, 7 July 2021

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Italian, usually in plural salumi "cold preserved meat products (most often from pork)," from sale "salt" (going back to Latin sal-, sāl) + -ume, collective noun suffix, going back to Latin -ū-, stem formative (as in acūmen "sharp point, stinger, acumen") + -men, resultative noun suffix — more at salt entry 1

First Known Use

1984, in the meaning defined above