saliva

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 唾 denotes saliva and is read つば as a standalone word.
• Basic usage: 唾を何度も飲み込んだ means that someone swallowed their saliva repeatedly.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• An everyday word and a descriptive term
  • 唾液, read だえき, is a descriptive term for the same substance. Its reading is not formed by keeping the standalone つば.
  • Both 唾を採取した and 唾液を採取した occur when collecting saliva for a test. A testing context does not make only one of these expressions possible.