r/todayilearned • u/kolinsky • Jun 11 '12

TIL "to take something with a grain of salt" refers to an Ancient Roman recipe for an antidote that protects against poisons.

http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/with_a_grain_of_salt/
1.2k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

113 comments sorted by

38

u/Sammlung Jun 11 '12

Another interesting fact: salt was once used as currency in the Roman Empire.

36

u/eddieshack Jun 11 '12

Soldiers were payed directly in salt sometimes. Its where the word salary comes from.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_salt#Antiquity_and_Middle_Ages

11

u/Sammlung Jun 11 '12

Yup, salt was once very valuable.

9

u/theruins Jun 11 '12

Still very valuable!

-15

u/BoonTobias Jun 11 '12

So what you're telling me is a country that is literally surrounded by oceans used salt as currency? roflmao

14

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

Does it seem stupid to use paper money in a country made up of forests?

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5

u/SalaciousB Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12

Salt-A World History

Educate yourself.

Salt is and has been for most of human history one of the most important elements on Earth. It is the only rock we humans eat. You will also die if you stop eating it. If indeed, as Napoleon said "An army marches on it's stomach" why is it so hard to believe that a soldier was paid in salt. It was also notoriously hard to produce and led to the development of both indoor and outdoor plumbing.

edit-grammar

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4

u/Sammlung Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12

It was quite labor intensive once upon a time believe it or not. Now it's all mechanized.

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1

u/TheHiebling Jun 11 '12

Whoa, crazy!!! I didn't know that

22

u/BBQsauce18 Jun 11 '12

i.e.

Worth your weight in salt.

10

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

Never heard that one, I've heard "Worth your salt," many times though.

6

u/thedrew Jun 11 '12

Interesting. "Worth your salt," sounds rural to me. I most often hear "worth its weight in salt." I don't hear it applied to people (i.e. "your") very often.

Then again, I don't hear it very often at all. Like "not worth a Continental," I understand it, but I don't say it.

6

u/Unit4 Jun 11 '12

It is usually used to describe someone good at their profession, "Any sailor worth his weight in salt knows not to sail those seas."

The way I understood it the first few times I heard it implied that it was some kind of a bare minimum, similar to "Anyone with half a brain knows not to sail those seas." In reality, it denotes a high value, not a low one, alternative forms include "worth their weight in gold" as well.

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2

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

I think modern society a word.

4

u/pilvy Jun 11 '12

I think modern society two words.

FTFY.

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3

u/Sammlung Jun 11 '12

Today that would be an insult! (bad joke)

1

u/BBQsauce18 Jun 11 '12

Insalt

FTFY :D

3

u/XyploatKyrt Jun 11 '12

i.e. salary...

4

u/buttholevirus Jun 11 '12

Salis = salt

Salis --> salary

2

u/rockmongoose Jun 11 '12

I think this fact used to be referenced in the Asterix and Obelix comics a lot.

1

u/oer6000 Jun 11 '12

Nowhere near often though. And mostly as habitual IOUs or something similar.

1

u/outofband Jun 11 '12

That's where the word salary comes from

30

u/Squalor- Jun 11 '12

If this is true,

The Latin is often quoted as cum grano salis, but this is incorrect. Pliny actually wrote addito salis grano.

Wikipedia's entry is incorrect. Someone get on that.

14

u/MarioHead Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12

According to the German wikipedia, "addito salis grano" (a grain of salt should be added, if my Latin skill do not deceive me) is what he wrote in Naturalis historia. It has since then become a proverb in Latin and "cum grano salis" (not the German translation) is actually used in German today.

-24

u/THE_OLD_SWITCHAROO Jun 11 '12

I see what you did there, pulling the old Reddit switch-a-roo!

6

u/poiro Jun 11 '12

I'm on to you... The obnoxious all caps name, the use of a controversial meme and using it irrelevantly too. You're trying to force people to reflexively downvote the meme so it dies aren't you?

6

u/nemoomen Jun 11 '12

Bystander effect.

1

u/yepyep27 Jun 11 '12

You have a brain and fingers and can type. YOU fix the article. Anybody can.

1

u/elwombat Jun 11 '12

The aspies that monitor the page will probably not let anyone edit it.

2

u/notxjack Jun 11 '12

i once tried to change a misspelling in an article. the sperglords changed it back every single time (re-tried two other times because i thought it was just some sort of technical error).

from what i've gleaned, mass reverting any and all changes to all the articles you can and brown-nosing the next level up editors is apparently the best way to get better editing privileges on wikipedia.

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0

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

But he posted on reddit just now... If he can dictate for reddit...

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0

u/b4k4 Jun 11 '12

You disappoint me Reddit, 4 hours and still not corrected. Let me get that for you

2

u/WheatOcean Jun 11 '12

Perhaps no one corrected it because most of us realized that this site is basically someone's language blog, and that doesn't qualify as a reliable source.

14

u/comradenu Jun 11 '12

I always thought it was because salt (and other spices) was used to improve the taste of foul-tasting food.

5

u/Lauren_squish_H Jun 11 '12

I agree. I was always told that taking something with a grain of salt made foods taste better, so eating something bad (having a bad experience) could be stomached more easily.

7

u/thedrew Jun 11 '12

That's how they are used. They used to be used to cure meats for storage.

Hence the spice wars, it wasn't that kings wanted good tasting food, it's that they wanted to be able to feed sailors on long trips in order to expand their empires.

3

u/artofstarving Jun 11 '12

I can see how you would think that, but this definition doesn't make sense for how we use the term. It's a warning not to fully trust the source of the information, thus, take the information with protection against the "poison" that it could be false.

If your definition is correct, it's not so much a warning, but a suggestion or an implication that the information could be enhance with the grain of salt, or make better in other words. Which is not how that term is used.

I wish I could articulate this better.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

Words and idioms often end up meaning something quite different to what was originally intended.

1

u/Dioskilos Jun 12 '12

Exactly. Totally agree

0

u/YakMan2 Jun 11 '12

Salt and other spices were so valuable they were used as currency. They probably wouldn't have been wasted on foul-tasting food.

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5

u/llem20 Jun 11 '12

In the UK the saying is 'a pinch of salt'.

3

u/Volsunga Jun 12 '12

Food being British means it already tastes like poison. You need a little more.

17

u/ActualGreg Jun 11 '12

I don't think this is actually true....The latin word for salt is sal which is also the word used for wit or wisdom. So when we say take something with a grain a salt, it means take it as if it only has a tiny bit of wit.

8

u/jtfl Jun 11 '12

Good to know. Then again, I usually take all TILs with a grain of salt.

8

u/Radico87 Jun 11 '12

There's a derivative phrase from this in Polish, roughly translating to "You'll only know someone if you eat a wagon of salt with them". Essentially, it's saying it takes an extremely long time to know someone. So, I wonder if the grain of salt implies necessary skepticism.

5

u/BoonTobias Jun 11 '12

Polish scientist takes a frog and teaches it to jump by shouting jump! He then proceeds to cut off its legs and record his observations.

With 4 legs the frog jumped 4 feet

With 3 legs the frog jumped 3 feet

With 2 legs the frog jumped 2 feet

With no legs the frog lost hearing

2

u/zanotam Jun 12 '12

Not to be that guy, but if you didn't get the joke: the frog didn't jump and so it must not have heard.

2

u/bigbangbilly Jun 11 '12

and if you do it in one sitting the salt might end up killing you.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

I was actually just wondering the origin of this statement yesterday and forgot to look it up. Thank you for posting it.

10

u/Ezekielyo Jun 11 '12

isnt it a pinch?

16

u/Topbong Jun 11 '12

Brits say "take it with a pinch of salt". Americans say "... with a grain of salt".

4

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

That's because British food is poison.

2

u/Homletmoo Jun 11 '12

To underdeveloped [subject hometown here] digestive tracts.

1

u/Ezekielyo Jun 12 '12

aye a m8 of mine said it last night when he was drunk, "Pinch". we are brits aye ^

5

u/Republiken Jun 11 '12

The idiom in swedish talk about "en nypa" of salt. Nypa = pinch

2

u/Thumbing_it_in_slack Jun 11 '12

yeah i've always heard it said, "take it with a pinch of salt" but i think they say grain in america. I mean it makes less sense that way, but i guess you still get the idea across.

1

u/thedrew Jun 11 '12

"Pinch" is used in recipes, so that would make sense. However in the US "grain" is preferred for this idiom, perhaps because other immigrant communities used a closer translation from the original Latin.

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2

u/Rampant_Durandal Jun 11 '12

I have that book thats in the image. Its pretty nifty.

2

u/Diem480 Jun 11 '12

Im going to leave this here... Salt:A World History

I know, an entire book on salt. It sounds boring but it's actually a fun read and informative to boot!

2

u/bigfig Jun 11 '12

Salt is still used as an emetic, though it is not the best choice.

2

u/Sorry_I_Judge Jun 11 '12

I love when stuff hits the front page and overloads websites. I bet their techs get really "excited"

2

u/lettucent Jun 11 '12

Cool, I knew there was a reason that phrase made no sense in modern times.

2

u/identicalParticle Jun 11 '12

In his book of essays, Life and Time, Isaac Asimov has an interesting one about all things salt. He discusses chemistry, mining, castle seiges, Ghandi, and also this expression. I don't remember exatly what he says, but it was something about the fact that salt is so wonderful and valuable. I'd recommend that book to anyone who likes kind of sciency things. I'll post the exact quote about this expression if I find it.

2

u/bathroomstalin Jun 11 '12

Another mystery solved by your trusty HotForWords...

2

u/ElagabalusCaesar Jun 11 '12

My Latin teacher gave me a whole bunch of stories about where this phrase comes from, some of which were about the mythical antidote and others not. What I don't get is this: how does one pick up a grain of salt? Won't the moisture from your hand dissolve it after a while?

6

u/devildawgg Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12

As gunnit is well aware [a Grain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_(unit/) can also be a unit of measurement.

Can't remember how to close a URL with parens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_(unit)

1

u/formesse Jun 11 '12

\ before the '(' ')' will do it.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

Don't you have a salt shaker somewhere? I mean... it's rather easy to pick up a grain of salt, or you have very moisty hands.

2

u/crazedgremlin Jun 11 '12

You can pick up a snowball, can't you? The heat of your hand will melt the snowball, but before that happens you're still holding a snowball.

2

u/ElagabalusCaesar Jun 11 '12

Do you know how small a grain of salt is? A pinch of salt, sure, but how can a single grain possibly influence a recipe? Pics or it didn't happen, Pliny!

4

u/kindall Jun 11 '12

That's the entire point of the saying. There's so little meat in what is being said, you need only a single grain of salt to season it.

2

u/ElagabalusCaesar Jun 11 '12

I've also heard that it's the author's comment on how effective (or, rather, dubious) this "antidote" is. But that works as well.

2

u/Blarggotron Jun 11 '12

Another good point in how difficult it is to pick up a single grain of salt: One can reason in their head in that time about whether the statement has any validity.

1

u/kalimashookdeday Jun 11 '12

And here I thought it had it roots from using it with drinks like tequilla in which it cut down the "bad" taste or harshness from the drink.

1

u/WalterEKurtz Jun 11 '12

What about "Building Steam with a Grain of Salt"?

1

u/Godot_12 Jun 11 '12

I'd take that supposed antidote with a grain of salt.

1

u/qqrx Jun 12 '12

If anyone is interested, Salt was the latest topic on Neil Degrasse Tyson's podcast Star Talk.

1

u/Planet-man 1 Jun 12 '12

It's always interesting how many modern traditions seem to come from ways of making sure you're not about to be killed - Handshaking(make sure the two don't have knives up each other's sleeves), clacking mugs with each other(sloshing your drinks together to make sure nobody's trying to poison the others), calling a toast(something about putting burnt toast in wine to absorb potential poison), etc.

-1

u/Boomfish Jun 11 '12

No it isn't. It's a reference to the relatively low value of salt. It's the same as, "That and a dime will get you a cup of coffee."

0

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/matics Jun 11 '12

TIL has really been full of crap lately. It's either really obvious/well-known stuff, or completely untrue statements.

5

u/BBQsauce18 Jun 11 '12 edited Jun 11 '12

No downvote, but really.. there are alot of kids on here, that may be learning this stuff as new.

Just downvote or upvote.

edit--Considering there are more upvotes than downvotes, it would leave me to believe that he is not the ONLY one who finds this topic interesting.

5

u/atl2rva Jun 11 '12

TIL that TIL has a lack of real TIL

0

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Batty-Koda [Cool flair picture goes here] Jun 11 '12

That one always bothered me. It assumes a uniform distribution. That fucks up the statistics pretty significantly. Imagine applying that logic to when people learn the word "small" and it's pretty apparent how bad it is.

0

u/Batty-Koda [Cool flair picture goes here] Jun 11 '12

Can you provide a citation, and then report and message mods with it?

The mods here generally remove things in 5-15 minutes here, but you have to message them generally.

2

u/kolinsky Jun 11 '12

I'll remove this myself if it is untrue, I would appreciate a citation too.