'salt-sensitivity' originates from Modern English as a compound of 'salt' and 'sensitivity', where 'salt' refers to the chemical substance sodium chloride and 'sensitivity' refers to the capacity to respond or react.

'salt' comes from Old English 'sealt' (Germanic origin), while 'sensitivity' derives from Latin 'sentire' via Old French and Middle English (through words such as 'sensible' and 'sensitivity'); the compound 'salt-sensitivity' is a relatively recent technical formation in Modern English to describe responsiveness to salt.

Initially, 'salt' simply named the substance and 'sensitivity' meant 'capacity to perceive or be affected'; over time the compound came to mean specifically the degree of physiological or ecological response to salt (e.g., blood pressure changes or crop damage).