the.com/salt
the only rock you eat, and it once bought your freedom or chained you to wars
means A white crystalline mineral, sodium chloride, used to season and preserve food and essential to life — and, figuratively, sharp wit or hard-won experience.
from From Old English 'sealt,' tracing back to Proto-Germanic '*saltom' and an ancient Proto-Indo-European root '*sal-' that scattered salt across half the world's languages — Latin 'sal,' Greek 'hals,' Russian 'sol.' That same root seasons words you'd never suspect: 'salary' (Roman soldiers were possibly paid in or for salt — the link is real, though the famous 'paid in salt' tale is part folklore), 'sauce,' 'salad,' and 'sausage,' all things touched by salting. A small word with deep brine in its veins.
- word origin
- salary comes from salt payments to Roman soldiers
- deadly dose
- eating too much at once can kill you
- ocean math
- enough in the seas to bury all land 500 feet deep
- tax revolt
- Gandhi's salt march helped break British rule
- forever metal
- it never spoils, never expires, outlasts you
dead sea — 34.3% salinity, lowest point on earth at 1,410 feet below sea level
don juan pond — antarctica lake with 40% salinity, coldest naturally salty water on earth
gaet'ale pond — nevada lake reaching 32% salinity, one of earth's saltiest bodies of water