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With a grain of salt
With a grain of salt
With a grain of salt : Phrases
Meaning:
With a healthy dose of skepticism, suspicion and caution.
Example:
Dave has been known to stretch the truth a bit. Take what he says with a grain of salt.
Origin:
The heart is often used as a symbol of ones feelings of love and passion. To fully display the heart in a conspicuous place like the sleeve is to make ones feelings clearly visible. Why the sleeve is chosen as the place to display the emotions is unclear.
Salt is now an inexpensive and readily available commodity. But it was once very valuable due to its high demand as a food preservative and relative scarcity.
Salt was thought to have healing properties and to be an antidote to poisons. To take (eat or drink) something with a grain of salt was to practice preventive medicine. One would do this if they were suspicious that the food might be poisonous or may cause illness.
The phrase and meaning is thousands of years old, the Latin equivalent phrase is cum grano salis.