What’s the meaning of the word ‘salve’ in the context? What’s the meaning of the word ‘salve’ in the sentence ‘Dio te salve, Maria. Dio te salve, Maria’? I guess it’s an Italian word, meaning ‘save’, right? I guess the sentence means ‘God save you, Mary’, right? I know nothing about Italian, let alone the conjugations of Italian verbs. So I’m probably wrong. Thanks. It’s from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (Chapter 9).the context: …then I heard close to me some one saying "Mama Mia! Oh, mama Mia!" I pulled and twisted and got my legs loose finally and turned around and touched him. It was Passini and when I touched him he screamed. His legs were toward me and I saw in the dark and the light that they were both smashed above the knee. One leg was gone and the other was held by tendons and part of the trouser and the stump twitched and jerked as though it were not connected. He bit his arm and moaned, "Oh mama mia, mama Mia," then, "Dio te salve, Maria. Dio te salve, Maria. Oh Jesus shoot me Christ shoot me mama mia mama Mia oh purest lovely Mary shoot me. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Oh Jesus lovely Mary stop it. Oh oh oh oh," then choking, "Mama mama mia." Then he was quiet, biting his arm, the stump of his leg twitching.