The Latin word sal, or “salt,” inspired the word salarium, the pay soldiers received to buy salt. This in turn led to the English word salary. Well into the 17th century, salt remained a valuable commodity, but today if you’re not worth your weight in salt, you’re not worth very much. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Sal, Salary, Salarium”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Susan Cruz, and I’m calling from Iowa.
I have a kind of a question for you guys.
Okay, shoot.
I grew up in a very large family. There was 11 of us kids. Wow. And my mom was always busy. There was always chores to do. And there was always times as a child, you didn’t do what you were supposed to do. And my mother had an old saying that, you know, when she was angry at us for whatever it was, for me in particular, not sorting the laundry or whatever it was, but she would say, you’re not worth your weight in salt. And as an 8-year-old child, you really didn’t know what that meant. So I just thought I’d throw it out there to you and see if you could tell me what that’s all about.
You’re not worth your weight in salt.
Yeah. You have to have these different sayings. When you have 11 kids, you just need to shut stuff down.
Right. I think that’s probably true. Susan, what did you think it meant?
Well, obviously, I wasn’t worth something to her at that moment in time. But how it related to salt, I had no idea. And, you know, as far as I know, salt is pretty cheap. So I didn’t really know. I just knew I was in trouble.
Yeah, it’s interesting because historically, salt has been so valuable as a commodity. Back in ancient Rome, soldiers were paid in salt, sometimes literally or sometimes they were given a salt allowance to buy salt because, you know, to preserve your food before refrigeration and that kind of thing.
Oh, sure. You needed salt. And I’m just reminded of the fact that the Latin word for salt, sol, is in our word salt in English. And also the Latin word salarium, which was the payment to soldiers with salt, gives us the word salary. So you’re earning your salt that way. But to be worth one’s weight in salt, I guess it depends on if you had a lot of salt or not.
I wonder.
It would. You know, I also wonder if it’s a euphemism for something else. You’re not worth your weight in, I don’t know. It’s hard to say. My mom had a lot of old sayings. This was just one that stuck with me. My mom was one that would be angry at me very often. So that ultimately led to me thinking she was disappointed in me for some reason. But how it related to salt, I had no idea.
Yeah, so salt is payment to the Roman legions, right?
Yeah, back in the olden days. And then once they figured out how to extract salt more efficiently from the earth and the ocean, then that money source just poof, dried up in an everyday thing.
So salt wouldn’t have been that valuable after that?
No, but it still was well into the 1700s. Salt was incredibly valuable.
Well, thank you for clearing that up. It’s a new phrase to me, so I’d be curious to know if other people heard that version of it. You’re not worth your weight in salt.
Well, Susan, thanks so much for calling.
Oh, sure. You bet. Thank you for your time.
All right. Thank you.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
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