Attic salt
English
editEtymology
editAttic + salt; a calque of Latin sāl Atticus or sāl Atticum. In classical times “salt” was a frequent metaphor for “wit”.
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈatɪk sɔːlt/, /ˈatɪk sɒlt/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈætɪk sɑlt/, /ˈætɪk sɔlt/, /-ɾɪk/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Hyphenation: At‧tic salt
Noun
edit- (idiomatic) Pointed and delicate wit.
- 1760, Thomas Flloyd, “LUCANUS (Marcus Annæus)”, in Bibliotheca Biographica: A Synopsis of Universal Biography, Ancient and Modern. Containing a Circumstantial and Curious Detail of the Lives, Actions, Opinions, Writings, and Characters of the Most Celebrated Persons, of Both Sexes, of All Ranks, in All Countries, and in All Ages: Alphabetically Disposed. [...], volumes II (Dac–Nor), London: Printed for J. Hinton, in Newgate-Street; L. Davis and C. Reymers, opposite Gray's-Inn, Holborn; R[ichard] Baldwin in Pater-noster-Row; and J[ohn] Walter, at Charing-Cross, →OCLC:
- His [Lucan's] wit, ſays Ablancourt, was full of urbanity, that Attic ſalt which the French call fine raillery; not obſcene, not groſs, not rude, but facetious, well-mannered, and well-bred.
- 1918, Leo Tolstoy, Louise and Aylmer Maude, translators, chapter IX, in Anna Karenina, a Novel (World's Classics; 210–211), volume I, [Cambridge?]: Oxford University Press, →OCLC; republished London: Oxford University Press, Humphrey Milford, publisher to the University, 1923, →OCLC, part IV, page 435:
- Koznyshev, who knew better than anyone how at the end of a most abstract and serious dispute unexpectedly to administer a grain of Attic salt and thereby to change his interlocutor's frame of mind, did so now.
- 1941, H[ugh] F[raser] Stewart, “Pascal in Debate”, in The Secret of Pascal, Cambridge: At the University Press, →OCLC; 1st paperback edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, →ISBN, page 7:
- But Attic salt is not the sole preservative against the decay that threatens all human writings; nor can mere eloquence rekindle the ashes of a dead controversy.
Translations
editpointed and delicate wit
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Further reading
edit- Laconic phrase – uses on Wikipedia.Wikipedia