Salami Tactics: Taking a Country One Slice at a Time
Salami is a cured sausage eaten in thin slices. Its name comes from salt, and it gave politics a term for destroying opposition gradually.
Salami is a cured, air-dried sausage, sliced thin. The Hungarian communist leader Mátyás Rákosi gave the word a second life in the late 1940s: he described taking power by *salami tactics*, cutting the opposition away slice by slice until nothing remained to defend. The phrase is now used for any strategy of small, individually tolerable steps.
- A cured sausage. *Milano salami.*
- Salami tactics — gradual dismantling. *Salami tactics in the negotiations.*
- Salami slicing — taking tiny amounts repeatedly. *Salami slicing of the budget.*
- Italian plural — *salame* is one, *salami* is more than one.
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | salami | A slice of salami. |
| Plural | salamis | Cured salamis. |
| Italian singular | salame | Un salame. |
| Root | sale | Italian for salt. |
| Related | charcuterie | A charcuterie board. |
- The salami hung curing for three months.Food.
- Critics called the reforms salami tactics.Politics, negative.
- The fraud worked by salami slicing thousands of accounts.Finance and computing.
Salt words in this dictionary
- Salami — from Italian *sale*, salt
- Salary — from Latin *salarium*, a salt allowance
- Saline — salty, from Latin *sal*
- Sauce and salsa — both salted
- Salad — originally salted greens
Italian *salami*, plural of *salame*, from *salare*, to salt, from Latin *sal*. English took the plural form as a singular in the 1850s, which is why *salamis* is a double plural.
What are salami tactics?
Achieving a large aim through small steps, each too minor to provoke resistance. The term is credited to Mátyás Rákosi in Hungary in the late 1940s.
Is salami singular or plural?
In Italian it is plural. English treats it as singular and adds another -s for salamis.