eng
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These Expressions Are 'Worth Their Salt'

created May 9th 2020, 05:14 by PhiLongNg


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271 words
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Eating too much salt can be bad for you, but if you didn't eat any, you could die. Salt can also be used to preserve food, which made it very important in the past.
 
The word "salary" even comes from the Latin word for salt and some say that Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, although nobody is sure if this is really true. But this idea is probably where the expression "worth one's salt" comes from. If a person is "worth their salt," it means they're good at what they do, and deserve to be paid.
 
For example, if your friend's car was damaged, you could say, "Any mechanic worth their salt will be able to fix it!"
 
The Romans, Greeks and Egyptians even used salt to clean wounds. Because this was painful, salt was also sometimes rubbed into the wounds of people who had been punished. That's why if someone says or does something that makes you feel worse about a bad situation, you can say they're "rubbing salt in the wound."
 
So if you saw your friend again and said, "Wow, your car still looks terrible!" they might reply saying, "I don't have enough money for a mechanic. You don't have to rub salt in the wound!"
 
If you want to say that an idea or piece of advice shouldn't be taken seriously because it might be incorrect, you can tell someone to "take it with a grain of salt."
 
So if someone told your friend a strange way to fix their car, you might say, "You should take their advice with a grain of salt!"

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