"based on or contained in the law code of the Salian Franks," 1540s, from French Salique, from Medieval Latin Salicus, from the Salian Franks, a name given to a Frankish Germanic tribe that once lived near the Zuider Zee, the ancestors of the Merovingian kings, and it means "those living near the river Sala" (the modern Ijssel).
The Salic Law, a supposed code of law of the ancient Germanic tribes, was invoked 1316 by Philip V of France to exclude a woman from succeeding to the throne of France (and later to combat the French claims of Edward III of England), but the precise meaning of the cited passage is unclear.