Attic salt

English

WOTD – 28 October 2017

Etymology

Démosthène s'exerçant à la parole (Demosthenes Practising Oratory, 1870) by Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ, from a private collection. Demosthenes (384 – 12 October 322 B.C.E.), a Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens, was known for his wit.

Attic + salt; a calque of Latin sāl Atticus or sāl Atticum. In classical times “salt” was a frequent metaphor for “wit”.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈatɪk sɔːlt/, /ˈatɪk sɒlt/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈætɪk sɑlt/, /ˈætɪk sɔlt/, /-ɾɪk/
Audio (AU) (file)
Hyphenation: At‧tic salt

Noun

Attic salt (uncountable)

(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. [...], volume 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 paginated:
  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 6561729; republished London: Oxford University Press, Humphrey Milford, publisher to the University, 1923, OCLC 10541346, 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 776538812; 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

pointed and delicate wit