Tell me the etymology of the word "salary."?

Question

Let's make a game out of this and see who can honestly answer this question without "Googling" the word. An attestation to that effect would ensure the 10 points. Of couse, you could always cheat . . . I'd never know.

Answer 1

ok, I just learned this recently in church.. it pays to take notes and pay attention! in the old days, salt was a valuable commodity. it was a sign of hospitality, purity and covenant. that's where we get the phrase "being worth your salt" and the word "salary", because sometimes in biblical times people would get paid partially or entirely in salt. the reason I learned this in church is we had a series of lessons on the beatitudes (matthew chapter 5) and this particular lesson was on the verse about being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Answer 2

Salt is what it is based on. It was a medium of exchange in ancient times and "Salary" is derivative of that. People used to get paid in salt.

Answer 3

Middle English salarie, from Anglo-Norman

Answer 4

I don't know.. sounds sort of like salt, but I don't know if that makes sense. I seem to remember that salt was used for money once (a very long time ago.)

Answer 5

a long time ago people used to be paid with salt
and "sal" in latin means salt
and thats where salary comes from

Answer 6

comes from the latin word for salt. back in the day, Salt was so precious that when Roman soldiers got paid, they were paid with bags of salt.