salientyoudaoicibaDictYouDict[salient 词源字典]
salient: [16] Salient is one of a large number of English words that go back ultimately to Latin salīre ‘jump’. Others include assail, assault, desultory, insult, sally, sauté, and also salacious [17], which goes back to Latin salāx ‘given to leaping on to females in order to copulate’, a derivative of salīre. Salient itself comes from the present participle saliēns, and was originally used as a heraldic term, meaning ‘jumping’; the metaphorical ‘prominent’ did not emerge until the 18th century.
=> assail, assault, desultory, insult, result, salacious, sally, sauté[salient etymology, salient origin, 英语词源]
salient (adj.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1560s, "leaping," a heraldic term, from Latin salientem (nominative saliens), present participle of salire "to leap," from PIE root *sel- (4) "to jump" (cognates: Greek hallesthai "to leap," Middle Irish saltraim "I trample," and probably Sanskrit ucchalati "rises quickly").

It was used in Middle English as an adjective meaning "leaping, skipping." The meaning "pointing outward" (preserved in military usage) is from 1680s; that of "prominent, striking" first recorded 1840, from salient point (1670s), which refers to the heart of an embryo, which seems to leap, and translates Latin punctum saliens, going back to Aristotle's writings. Hence, the "starting point" of anything.
salient (n.)youdaoicibaDictYouDict
1828, from salient (adj.).