Is the word salary connected to salt?

 

The word salary is a Latin word from salarium which has a root in sal or salt. In Ancient Rome, salt is very expensive due to its preservative nature. It is said that Roman soldiers were paid with salt as monthly allowance. In that time salt is considered as a token of loyalty or responsibility to the king. If you take salt from someone, you need to be loyal to him. This meaning still exists today. Now it is money that is paid, not the salt. But salt is today a very inexpensive substance. There are so many idioms or sayings that exist today for salt. Their meaning can be derived based on either ancient or modern sense. India, too, have developed some expressions with salt, for instance, Namak Haram (traitor or disloyal), Namak ka haqq ada krna (worth the salt)

1. Worth your salt: competent, worth of a job, deserving respect

She spends all her energy and time to take the company to the height. She is worth her salt.

2. Below the salt: low standing in society, low in rank, regard, or repute

Considering one below the salt is a social crime nowadays.

3. Above the salt: high standing in society, royal, high in rank, regard, repute

Amar, though above the rank, considers no one below the salt.

4. Salt of the earth: an individual with the noblest characters, the person of highest qualities 

He is truly the salt of the earth. 

5. Take with a grain/pinch of salt: taking something not very seriously, accepting with reservation, not completely true.

I have watched that documentary on snake man, but I take it with a grain of salt.

Where did the word grammar originate from?

The word grammar has its root in Gramma which means ‘letters’ in Greece. It became a base in grammatike techne (the art of letter), a formal Greek grammar. It took the form, grammatica, in Rome. Then, it entered Old French as grammaire and finally Old English replaced a rather informal and complex English grammar, stæfcræft- skill in letters- by grammar. Lindley Murray ” is known as “the father of English grammar.

Blood is not that just flows in veins

Do you know what blood means?

Of course, all of you know!

Do you know what are idioms?

You may or may not!

Idioms are very interesting and funny things. They can be used to teach vocabulary.

Let’s learn some of the famous idioms by blood.

1. Blood and guts: we use this idiom to mean ‘extreme violence and bloodshed shown in movies’

People now want to see movies with more blood and guts stuff.

Hollywood depicts a large amount of blood and guts in the thrillers.

2. Blood is thicker than water: we use this idiom to show ‘blood relation is more important than other relationships’.

Your brother had slapped her. You can do nothing. After all, blood is thicker than water.

3. Blood, sweat and tears: we use this idiom to mean ‘very hard work’.

He pours all his blood, sweat and tears in cracking civil service.

4. Blood on your hands: this idiom is used to mean ‘someone is responsible for somebody’s death’.

He cannot hide from his sin. He has blood on his hands.

5. Make somebody’s blood boil: when we make somebody very angry, we use this idiom.

Don’t make my blood boil.

            I saw an elephant eating firecrackers. My blood began to boil thinking who did this.

Have you ever come to discover that the word album we use today had not been used the same in history?

Album, when it was in Rome first, has been used for a whiteboard that was used to inscribe public orders, commands, senators’ names, etc. Then it travelled to Germany, and Germans used it to keep a record of friends’ drawings, poems, autographs, etc. Finally, English loaned it to mean a book of blank pages to keep pictures, stamps, etc as memories. Till 1950, it had travelled to mean a collection of music or songs on a single disc or cassette. The collection of writings, artworks, etc is also called an album.