salignant

Salignant is an adjective that appears very rarely in French-language sources. In most contexts, the standard term for the meaning "bloody" is sanglant, and salignant is generally viewed as an archaic or variant form rather than a distinct, current usage.

Etymology and attestation

Salignant is believed to be a historical or nonstandard variant of sanglant, itself derived from sang (blood) with the adjectival suffix -ant. The spelling salignant is scarcely attested in broad dictionaries and is mostly encountered in a handful of older manuscripts or in limited dialectal or literary contexts. Because it is not widely recognized in contemporary lexicons, its precise origin and distribution remain unclear, and it is not considered a separate modern term.

Usage

In modern French, salignant is not routinely used and may be regarded as obsolete or stylistically marked. When encountered, it appears in historical texts, poetry, or translations that preserve older spellings. For contemporary writing, standard usage favors sanglant to convey the sense of something blood-stained or tremendously bloody.

See also

Sanglant, the common French adjective for "bloody"; blood in language and color terminology; historical spellings and orthographic variation in French.

Notes

As with many rare or archaic terms, confirmatory sources such as historical dictionaries or manuscript editions are recommended if salignant appears in scholarly work.