saltwater

S1A1L1T1W4A1T1E1R1

adjective

New Keynesian or Keynesian, in reference to macroeconomics and economics departments on the East Coast and West Coast of the United States of America.

Less commonScrabble 12

Meanings

saltwater1

nounsaltwater (countable and uncountable, plural saltwaters)

plural saltwaters

  1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of salt water.

    Etzler was a follower of the wonkish French utopian Charles Fourier, who promised that the scientific reinvention of nature would transmute the saltwater into lemonade.

    2025 March 18, Samuel Moyn, “Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 Mar 2025
adjectivesaltwater (not comparable)
  1. not comparableNew Keynesian or Keynesian, in reference to macroeconomics and economics departments on the East Coast and West Coast of the United States of America.

    Sweetwater and Saltwater economists tend to differ on policy issues.

    2004, Arnold Kling, Learning Economics, 1st edition, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 29
    4 more examples

    These findings suggest that the divide between fresh and saltwater departments has all but disappeared. The ideological battle is over.

    2007, David Colander, The Making of an Economist, Redux, 2nd edition, Princeton University Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 228

    2012, John Quiggin, Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us, Princeton University Press (expanded paperback ed., 1st ed. from 2010), →ISBN, page 86. Despite their often heated debates, saltwater and freshwater economists agreed on one fundamental point: that macroeconomic analysis must be based on the foundations of neoclassical microeconomics.

    In the US, economists were said to be from sweetwater departments – from Chicago and Minnesota, where they were new classical – and from saltwater departments – MIT, Harvard and Yale, where they continued to be Keynesians who did not concede the ground totally to the new classical economists.

    2015, Meghnad Desai, Hubris: Why Economists Failed to Predict the Crisis and How to Avoid the Next One, 1st edition, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 191

    A tax rate of say, 91 per cent – as suggested by the very saltwater Nobel Prizewinner, economist Paul Krugman – would force Americans to hand over a much larger proportion of their income than most are comfortable with.

    2016, Philippa Malmgren, Signals: How Everyday Signs Can Help Us Navigate the World's Turbulent Economy, Hachette UK, →ISBN

Saltwater2

proper noun
  1. A locality in the MidCoast council area, eastern New South Wales, Australia.

Synonyms & antonyms

antonym(s) of “both senses”

nounwater containing salts

Opposite
Broader

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Middle Englishsaltwater
  2. Englishsaltwater

From Middle English saltwater, salte water, equivalent to salt + water. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Soaltwoater (“saltwater”), West Frisian sâltwetter (“saltwater”), Dutch zoutwater (“saltwater”), German Low German Soltwater (“saltwater”), German Salzwasser (“saltwater”), Danish saltvand (“saltwater”), Swedish saltvatten (“saltwater”), Icelandic saltvatn (“saltwater”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

saltwater. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/saltwater

MLA

“saltwater.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/saltwater. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “saltwater,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/saltwater.

Source: saltwater on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.