salami-slice

See also: salami slice

English edit

WOTD – 31 May 2020

Etymology edit

From the way a large salami is reduced in size by having thin slices removed from it.

Pronunciation edit

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /səˈlɑːmi ˌslaɪs/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /səˈlɑmi ˌslaɪs/
Hyphenation: sa‧la‧mi-slice

Verb edit

salami-slice (third-person singular simple present salami-slices, present participle salami-slicing, simple past and past participle salami-sliced)

(transitive, chiefly British, informal) To engage in salami slicing.
1. To divide (something) into small groups or portions; specifically, to tackle (a big task, etc.) in incremental steps.
  - 1989, Mort Rosenblum, Back Home: A Foreign Correspondent Rediscovers America, New York, N.Y.: Morrow, →ISBN, page 198:
    Lawyers and businessmen made fortunes in land deals and then leveraged profits to build more ticky-tack in fragile areas. A friend of mine boasts how his company broke the ban on subdivisions in the foothills. Vast areas were closed off to hikers. The city council and Pima County supervisors, for reasons I've never understood, kept saying yes. In the end Tucson quietly salami-sliced itself to death.
  - 1990 March 2, Thomas G. Wiggans, “[Serono Laboratories, Inc., letter to Henry Arnold Waxman, chairman, Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, regarding replies to statements made at the hearing and answers to questions submitted by members of the Subcommittee]”, in Orphan Drug Act: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives, One Hundred First Congress, Second Session […] (Serial No. 101-130), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, page 145:
    Congress should not be misled to believe that "salami slicing" indications and off-label prescribing practices will resolve the Act's current inequities. These trends will only proliferate problems with the Act.
  - 2009, Martin Orridge, “Successfully Managing the Change Project”, in Change Leadership: Developing a Change-adept Organization, Farnham, Surrey: Gower Publishing; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, page 73:
    As project manager it is unlikely that you have all the necessary knowledge and subject matter expertise to undertake this task alone. You will need to involve other people in helping you salami slice the project.
  - 2015 November 19, Sarah Jane Tribble, Sydney Lupkin, quoting Martin Makary, “Drugs For Rare Diseases Have Become Uncommonly Rich Monopolies”, in NPR‎^[1], published 17 January 2017, archived from the original on 26 May 2020:
    By salami slicing the disease into subgroups, it allows them [pharmaceutical companies] to get the orphan drug approval with all the government benefits and even some of the subsidies.
  - 2018 March 22, Melanie Henwood, “Jeremy Hunt’s seven principles on adult social care reform: a new way forward or just rhetoric?”, in British Politics and Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science‎^[2], archived from the original on 13 June 2018:
    Getting a sense of inter-generational solidarity and buy-in to a revised social contract will be critical to reform, and any approach that salami-slices the population risks instead becoming highly divisive.
2. To reduce (something) incrementally (for example, to cut a budget by gradually removing sums of money from it).
  - 2007 March 27, Gale S. Pollock, The State of the Military Health Care System: Hearing before the Military Personnel Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, One Hundred Tenth Congress, First Session […] (H.S.A.C. No. 110-45), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, published 2008, →OCLC, page 24:
    So basically it means we are going to take an entire MEDAC out of the ability to contribute to the health care of the men and women and their families in uniform. There is no way that I can salami slice that.
  - 2011 June 9, Naomi Long, Corporation Tax: First Report of Session 2010–12: House of Commons, Northern Ireland Affairs Committee […] (HC 558-II (incorporating HC 803, HC 919 and HC 951)), volumes II (Oral and Written Evidence), London: The Stationery Office, →ISBN, question 171, page Ev 138, column 1:
    I mean, I have a personal view that the approach to the budget has been to salami-slice across everything, so the good and the bad get cut equally. It avoids the very contentious decisions, but it also unfortunately means that some very productive stuff takes a hit, rather than gets prioritised.
  - 2018 October 28, “The Observer view on the budget and the decade of austerity”, in The Observer‎^[3], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 October 2019:
    In the last few years, as the cuts have really started to bite, austerity has morphed from theoretical Whitehall discussions about how best to salami-slice departmental budgets into the reality of people’s everyday lives.
  - 2021 December 1, Philip Haigh, “HS2 to Leeds axed as North slams "inadequate" rail plan”, in RAIL, number 945, page 7:
    "[...] Bit by bit, HS2 and its grand vision for a rail network that might actually belong in the 21st century rather than in the 19th century is being salami-sliced until all that is left is a Birmingham to London shuttle with a few token services to Manchester - benefiting few but costing us all."

Alternative forms edit

salami slice

Related terms edit

Translations edit

to tackle a big task in incremental steps

Italian: fare a fettine, tagliuzzare (it)

to reduce something incrementally