I like to say the word "philosophy" was named after me, since my name is Phil. 

This is a blog about salt and English idioms that use the word salt!  In ancient times, salt had a high value.  Ancient Greeks paid for slaves with salt.  As a result, we have several salty idioms.  Salt was used to preserve good, so some idioms speak of preservation or saving. 

 

If you salt away money, it means you are saving it for later, like food preserved for the winter.  Today I recieved an unexpected check for $530.  I'll salt some of it away for later.  But you can also take what I say with a grain of salt.   Why only one grain?  One grain is not enough to preserve sometime.  So, if you "take it with a grain of salt" it means you do not put too much faith in it.  Why would you not have faith in what I say?  I will explain with another idiom: a fool and his money are soon parted.  That is, when it comes to money, I tend to spend it quickly.  So I probably won't save my money for long, but I'll spend it soon.  I said I would save it, but you can "take what I say with a grain of salt" because you should not take that too seriously.

 

A person who is worth his salt is a good man or woman.  He has value like salt had value in the ancient world.  A person who is the salt of the earth is very dependable. 

 

When we say a sailor is salty, it means he is an experienced sailor.  He has been in salt water so long, his is covered in salt!  So we say he is salty.  We also say his words are salty.  What are salty words?  Sailors were known to use bad words or profane words.  So, anyone who "has a foul mouth" is said to be salty when he or she speaks. 

 

pH