salvage

What it means

1. countableuncountableThe rescue of a ship, its crew and passengers or its cargo from a hazardous situation.
2. countableuncountableThe ship, crew or cargo so rescued.
3. countableuncountableThe compensation paid to the rescuers.

In a sentence

[...] the debris was hurled down the hillside on to the line and swept the engine off the track and into the sea; the engine in question, ex-Cambrian 0-6-0 No. 874, was not considered to be worth salvage, and was abandoned.

1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80

Where it comes from

1. Latinsalvus“safe”
2. Late Latinsalvare“to make safe, secure, save”
3. Old Frenchsalver
4. Englishsalvage

From Old French salver (see also save, from a variant form), from Late Latin salvare (“to make safe, secure, save”), from Latin salvus (“safe”) with the English suffix -age.

First known use: 16th–19th c.