Posted on 11/20/2011 5:11:29 PM PST by Jim Robinson
In Mexico they still piss on the hides to tan them!
If you buy mexican shoes, don’t get them wet, they will smell just like their tanning fluid!
After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, Gnaeus Pompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own handwriting; it was to the following effect: Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of a grain of salt; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will be proof against all poisons for that day.
:-). Very cool! Thanks Jim!
To take a statement with ‘a grain of salt’ or ‘a pinch of salt’ means to accept it but to maintain a degree of skepticism about its truth.
Origin
take with a pinch of saltThe idea comes from the fact that food is more easily swallowed if taken with a small amount of salt. Pliny the Elder translated an ancient antidote for poison with the words ‘be taken fasting, plus a grain of salt’.
Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, 77 A.D. translates thus:
After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, Gnaeus Pompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own handwriting; it was to the following effect: Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of a grain of salt; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will be proof against all poisons for that day.
The suggestion is that injurious effects can be moderated by the taking of a grain of salt.
The figurative meaning, i.e. that truth may require moderation by the notional application of ‘a grain of salt’, didn’t enter the language until much later, no doubt influenced by classical scholars’ study of Ancient Greek texts like the works of Pliny. The phrase has been in use in English since the 17th century; for example, John Trapp’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, 1647:
“This is to be taken with a grain of salt.”
The ‘pinch of salt’ variant is more recent. The earliest printed citation that I can find for it is F. R. Cowell’s Cicero & the Roman Republic, 1948:
“A more critical spirit slowly developed, so that Cicero and his friends took more than the proverbial pinch of salt before swallowing everything written by these earlier authors.”
That’s a piss poor analysis to a piss poor question, on a piss poor Sunday.
I thought it’s performance had been prevented with proper prior planning.
Does anyone know what made Bus wiser?
(ans: His wife came home with Schlitz in her pants.)
Baba ding!
Well—I screwed that one. Should have read:
Does anyone know what made Bud Wiser?
That’s what I’ve always heard. If a phrase origin has a “tidy” or “cute” explanation, it’s probably made up. Like “Mafia” coming from the words ma and fia meaning “my daughter!” in Italian. Not true. Nor is it true about “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge”. Although I’m not sure about “In like Flynn”. Supposedly referring to Errol Flynn’s sexual escapades. Maybe.
I always enjoy these tales about the history of your language, our sayings and customs.
BTTT
The type for both p and q are almost identical and can easily be mixed up.
Learned that in printing shop, circa 19 early 60's
****So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. ****
An old boy named Bateson made small belfreys with bells to do this work. People called him nuts, and the term “Bats in the belfrey” meant someone who was not quite right.
I knew of a snake who was so poor he didn’t have a pit to hiss in.
(rimshot)
Mind your “Ps” and “Qs” also was a caution to the printers who used hand type. Lowercase Ps looked awfully close to Qs but usually were caught by the proof reader.
“Worth his salt.” Roman soldiers (and probably others) were paid in salt (salarium), so if he was good at his job, he was . . . Hence our word “salary”.
[Distantly related to thread]
“The Earl’s Bastard” referred to a commoner’s firstborn. On the wedding night, if the woman was good looking, the Earl got first dibs.
In an unrelated note..Pliny the Elder is the greatest beer I’ve ever had and the #1 ranked beer out of EVERY beer in the world on Beer Advocate....
I think the chamber pot was also called a thunder mug.
In the middle ages salesmen would sell pigs in a poke sack to farmers. Often the farmer found he had bought a dog or cat.
So, Don’t Buy A Pig In A Poke!
Forgot this! The item was known as Bateson’s Belfry and from there the term Bats in the Belfry meant someone who was not quite right.
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