A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are often dressed, and typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. The word "salad" comes to English from the French salade of the same meaning, itself an abbreviated form of the earlier Vulgar Latin herba salata (salted herb), from the Latin salata (salted), from sal (salt). In English, the word first appears as "salad" or "sallet" in the 14th century. Salt is associated with salad because vegetables were seasoned with brine (a solution of salt in water) or salty oil-and-vinegar dressings during Roman times.[1] The phrase "salad days", meaning a "time of youthful inexperience" (based on the notion of "green"), is first recorded by Shakespeare in 1606,[1] while the use of salad bar, referring to a buffet-style serving of salad ingredients, first appeared in American English in 1937.
Read more on Wikipedia about different salads.