Attic salt en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈatɪk sɔːlt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (Australia) audio
- /ˈætɪk sɔlt/ (General-American)
- /-ɾɪk/ (General-American)
- /ˈatɪk sɒlt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˈætɪk sɑlt/ (General-American)
Etymology
Attic + salt; a calque of Latin sāl Atticus or sāl Atticum. In classical times “salt” was a frequent metaphor for “wit”.
Meanings
-
(idiomatic, uncountable) Pointed and delicate wit.
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.
1918 [1878], chapter 9, in Aylmer and Louise Maude, transl., Anna Karenina, Cambridge: Oxford University Press, translation of Анна Каренина (Anna Karenina) by Leo Tolstoy, →OCLC, part 2, page 435:As the dinner waned, hands reached for the pepper cruet rather than for the shaker of Attic salt.
1907 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Country of Elusion”, in The Trimmed Lamp […] , New York: McClure, Phillips & Co.: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.
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: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.
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:The idea opened a view into the very world in which he wished to live. To what might it not have given rise? what delightful intimacies,—what public praise,—to what Athenian banquets and rich flavour of Attic salt?
1855 January 5, Anthony Trollope, The Warden, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:Triumph swam in my father’s eyes, at the repartee—the Attic''' salt brought water into them—and so Obadiah heard no more about it.
1761, [Laurence Sterne], chapter 3, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume III, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC:
Translations (16)
nl Attisch zout (pointed and delicate wit) · pl sól attycka (pointed and delicate wit) · la sāl Atticum (pointed and delicate wit) · hu szellemesség (pointed and delicate wit) · fi attikalainen suola (pointed and delicate wit) · hu elmésség (pointed and delicate wit) · el Αττικόν άλας (pointed and delicate wit) · la sāl Atticus (pointed and delicate wit) · hu attikai só (pointed and delicate wit) · pt sal ático (pointed and delicate wit) · fr atticisme (pointed and delicate wit) · gl sal ático (pointed and delicate wit) · de attisches Salz (pointed and delicate wit) · fr sel attique (pointed and delicate wit) · ota نمك (pointed and delicate wit) · hu élc (pointed and delicate wit)
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