"act of washing or soaking with a salt liquid," 1705; see saline (adj.) -ation, ending indicating a noun of action.
Entries linking to salination
saline adj.
c. 1500, "made of salt" (a sense now obsolete), probably from Latin salinum "salt cellar" or salinae "salt pits," from sal (genitive salis) "salt" (from PIE root *sal- "salt"). The meaning "of, pertaining to, or characteristic of salt" is by 1771.
Saline solution is attested from 1833. Also in Middle English as a noun meaning "salt pit" (13c.), "a salt spring" (mid-15c.). As a shortening of saline solution, by 1926.
-ation
the end of some nouns of action; see -ate + -ion.
desalination n.
"removal of salt," 1943, from de- + salination. As a verb, desalt is recorded from 1909; desalinate is from 1949.