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Collins Dictionary
collinsdictionary.com › dictionary › english › save-for
SAVE FOR definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
Save for means the same as save. The parking lot was virtually empty save for a few cars clustered to one side.
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Cambridge Dictionary
dictionary.cambridge.org › us › dictionary › english › save
SAVE | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
SAVE meaning: 1. to stop someone or something from being killed, injured, or destroyed: 2. to keep someone from…. Learn more.
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Quora
quora.com › What-is-the-meaning-of-save-in-the-sentence-In-this-life-we-get-nothing-save-by-effort
What is the meaning of 'save' in the sentence 'In this life we get nothing save by effort'? - Quora
Answer: “except; other than.” It’s a less common, more formal, more literary, and these days somewhat archaic sense of the word “save”. So this sentence would mean “In this life we get nothing except the things we get by effort”, ...
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Tch-printing
tch-printing.com › tag-heuer-nztpde › fe837b-empty-save-meaning
empty save meaning
Save definition, to rescue from danger or possible harm, injury, or loss: to save someone from drowning. This article is contributed by Mohit Gupta_OMG . Please run them on your systems to explore the working. empty definition: 1. not containing any things or people: 2. not sincere or without ...
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SongMeanings
songmeanings.com › erin mccarley › love save the empty
Erin McCarley - Love Save the Empty Lyrics & Meanings | SongMeanings
Instead of feeling empty inside, she'll have something that she actually looks forward to in her life. Everyone who just feels empty, and purposeless, if they could just find love (whether it be for a person, an idea, an animal, or whatever it is as long as it gives them meaning) will finally be saved from that empty feeling.
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Seventy7
seventy7.cz › autumn-sonata-rimuksr › 410f32-empty-save-meaning
empty save meaning
And your coworkers to find and share information things or people: 2. sincere... Or possible harm, injury, or loss: to save someone from drowning Teams empty save meaning a private secure... Compatible with various applications, for example by text editors I then the!
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Reverso
dictionary.reverso.net › english-definition › save+for
SAVE FOR - Definition & Meaning - Reverso English Dictionary
8 prep You can use save to introduce the only things, people, or ideas that your main statement does not apply to. FORMAL (=apart from) There is almost no water at all in Mochudi save that brought up from bore holes. Save for means the same as save. ♦ save for prep-phrase (=apart from) The parking lot was virtually empty save for a few cars clustered to one side.
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Top answer
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12

Your last question first: no, save in this sense is not archaic. It’s not as common as except, but it occurs in natural speech, especially as part of the phrase save for.

As to why save (for) means ‘except (for)’, that is a relatively long story.

Originally, in mediaeval French, sauf/salf (masculine) and sauve/salve (feminine) were used as adjectives meaning ‘whole, intact, safe’ only. All the way back since Latin, this adjective was frequently used in an absolute manner to mean ‘with [X] safe/whole/intact’: in Latin, this was an absolute ablative, and you had expressions like salvā fīdē ‘with your faith intact/without violating your faith’. In French, where the ablative was long gone, the absolute usage was simply just the plain form, but still originally inflected to fit the number and gender of the noun it qualified: sauf sun ordre ‘with his order intact/not disobeying his order’ vs. sauve sa grace ‘with his grace or lordship intact/not disobeying or disrespecting (etc.) his grace or lordship’.

During Middle French, the inflection to match the noun modified started to be lost, and the masculine singular form sauf was used, becoming more and more preposition- or conjunction-like.

The meaning also shifted: from indicating that something was kept intact and unviolated, it came to be used as a polite way of expressing disagreement, similar to pace in modern academia: it meant something like ‘while not meaning any violation towards X’, ‘if X will excuse me saying so’, etc.

From this meaning came a more abstract meaning of the object of save, which was now clearly a preposition. This object now started being considered as having been removed from harm’s way, having been taken apart to avoid violation or unwholesomeness, as it were. The thing that was ‘safe/save’ in this sense was therefore now simply considered as not being included in the main group. The overlapping sense can be envisioned in an example phrase like “All the men were killed in the war, save one”: the one man is removed from his group of belonging (“all the men”) and is considered apart, immune to the effects of the sentence upon that group. He is both literally safe from being killed in the war and ‘safe’ from whatever happens in the sentence, so to speak.

This nuance of meaning was probably blurred out quite quickly, and only the notion of the object being seen as something that had been taken out of its group and was seen as an exception survived, which is basically the meaning both save and except has today.

[This answer is based on and fleshed out from the definitions and etymological notes given in the OED article for save (requires subscription).]

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I had someone use "save for" in an email recently. And I thought it was odd. I actually wasn't sure what it meant. And last Sunday at church, we sang the hymnal "Be thou my vision" and it uses the term "save for" also. But it's a really old hymn. So, yes, I find it archaic.

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PHP
php.net › manual › en › function.empty.php
PHP: empty - Manual
A variable is considered empty if it does not exist or if its value equals false. empty() does not generate a warning if the variable does not exist. ... No warning is generated if the variable does not exist.
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Merriam-Webster
merriam-webster.com › dictionary › save for
SAVE FOR Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The meaning of SAVE FOR is not including (someone or something) : except for (someone or something). How to use save for in a sentence.
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HiNative
hinative.com › what does save for mean?
What is the meaning of "Save for "? - Question about English (US) | HiNative
April 1, 2020 - It means except. Example: I don't eat fruit, save for bananas - meaning the only fruit I eat are bananas
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Love,_Save_the_Empty
Love, Save the Empty - Wikipedia
September 30, 2025 - Love, Save the Empty is the 2008 debut album by American pop rock singer Erin McCarley. It was released digitally through Universal Republic Records on iTunes on December 30, 2008. The hard copy was released on January 6, 2009.
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Reverso
dictionary.reverso.net › english-definition › save
SAVE - Definition & Meaning - Reverso English Dictionary
8 prep You can use save to introduce the only things, people, or ideas that your main statement does not apply to. FORMAL (=apart from) There is almost no water at all in Mochudi save that brought up from bore holes. Save for means the same as save. save for prep-phrase (=apart from) The parking lot was virtually empty save for a few cars clustered to one side.
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/sims4 › empty save file
r/Sims4 on Reddit: Empty save file
July 30, 2019 -

Hi! I’n looking for a save file with all the premade lots bulldozed for every neighborhood (I have all of them) that is also completely unpopulated. Does anyone know of one or where I could find one? Please and thank you :)

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Quora
quora.com › What-is-the-meaning-of-save-in-this-sentence
What is the meaning of 'save' in this sentence? - Quora
Answer (1 of 4): It means "except" as in an exception, and is usually paired with "for" in this usage. Other examples: I haven't had anything to eat today, save for a banana this morning.