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What is the capital of Tunisia?

Is the French adjective “savoureux(se)” ever used to mean “salé(e)” or “non sucré(e)” to describe food?

Le Grand Robert indique pour savoureux:

Fig. Qui a de la saveur (fig.), du sel, du piquant.

On peut dire que c’est salé. Mais ce n’ai pas dans le sens du sel de cuisine, mais du sel qui donne du piquant, de l’intérêt.

La présence de sel n’est pas indispensable pour qu’un mets soit qualifié de savoureux, car la saveur se rapporte à la qualité gustative de ce dernier qui est une notion à la fois plus large et plus subjective.

Cependant, dans le Grand Dictionnaire des Arts et des Sciences daté de 1696, Thomas Corneille (le frère de Pierre), écrit :

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Les chimistes prétendent avec raison que le sel est dans les chose principales cause des saveurs, comme si cela venait des corpuscules qui forment le sel, et que ces corpuscules appliquées à l’organisme du goût s’y insinuassent d’une telle manière qu’ils le mussent selon la proportion ou le rapport qu’ils ont avec lui. On n’en peut douter, puisqu’il n’y a rien de savoureux dont on ne puisse tirer le sel et qui devienne insipide après qu’on l’en a tiré, de même qu’il n’y a rien d’insipide qu’on ne rende savoureux si l’on y mêle du sel.

I’ve never seen savoureux being used to denote one of the basic tastes. The classical four basic tastes are sucré, salé, amer, acide, to which it is now common to add umami. Umami is sometimes translated as savoureux, but that’s rare in my experience.

I’ve never seen savoureux being used to denote one of the two food classifications from 18th century French cuisine. It’s always salé and sucré. Main dishes are salé (whether they are prepared with salt or not), desserts are sucré, bread and water are neutral. The adjective savoureux denotes anything especially tasty, whether it belongs to the salé or sucré group. The Dictionnaire de l’Académie française cites both “viandes savoureuses” and “fruits savoureux” as usage examples, showing that savoureux also applies to sweet foods. Similarly the more modern Trésor de la langue française gives the examples “fruit, gâteau, morceau de viande, vin savoureux”.

Québec French doesn’t seem to have diverged on this. The Grand Dictionnaire Terminologique article for “saveur salée” or “goût salé” provides the definition “Savory : giving a relish, salty and not sweet.” and gives “savo(u)ry flavo(u)r” as the corresponding English term. The only entry for savoureux is about wines (“gorgeous”).

Linguee shows “plat savoureux” mainly translated as “tasty” or “delicious”. A web search for plat savoureux only turns up uses where it means tasty, none where it would be a synonym salé.

So no, savoureux does not ever mean salé, on either side of the Altantic.

(By the way, in English, savo(u)ry meaning salty/main-dish in the savoury/sweet duality is not solely American and is far more than a decade old.)

 

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What is the capital of Tunisia?