Salty dogs

Both Merriam-Webster and the OED say "salacious" derives from salax, a variant of salire ("to leap"; the origin of the English word "desultory", among others), but it seems almost inconceivable that its roots are not shared with Salacia, or do not involve the ocean and seafaring culture generally by way of the prefix sal-, meaning "salt". While Salacia, the female divinity of salt water or the sea in Roman mythology often depicted in frescoes as a beautiful nymph adorned with seaweed, doesn't seem to have been particularly associated with lust or sex, the English word "salacious" came into usage at a much later date. "Salty" language is not always salacious, but frequently is. Sailors are traditionally said to often use such language: that is to say, they talk dirty, perhaps making frequent references to acts or lifestyles polite society might not wish its youthful members to entertain. Urban areas adjacent wharves occasionally developed reputations for unsavory characters and unwholesome activities. Salacious overlaps near-synonyms "earthy" and "crude" listed in definition 3b ("the salt of the earth"?), but carries an explicitly sexual connotation other descriptors may not. At any rate, the historical connection between salaciousness and salt bears a closer reading.