What exactly does "take it with a grain of salt" mean?

Question

And why would you?.... somethin wrong with the whole salt shaker?

Answer 1

(With) a grain of salt is a literal translation of a Latin phrase, (***) grano salis. A pinch of salt may also be used.

In common parlance, if something is to be taken with a grain of salt, it means that a measure of healthy skepticism should be applied regarding a claim; that it should not be blindly accepted and believed without any doubt or reservation. According to the Oxford English Dictionary "to take 'it' with a grain of salt" means "to accept a thing less than fully". It dates this usage back to 1647.

The phrase comes from Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia, regarding the discovery of a recipe for an antidote to a poison. In the antidote, one of the ingredients was a grain of salt. Threats involving the poison were thus to be taken "with a grain of salt" and therefore less seriously. In reality, salt is not an antidote to any poison.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_of_salt"

Answer 2

Grain Of Salt

Answer 3

you should know that the "grain" of salt referred to is not a single granule. The phrase is also used as " a pinch of salt". A grain is a unit of weight that in modern times is about 65 milligrams, 1/5 of an aspirin tablet.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What exactly does "take it with a grain of salt" mean?
And why would you?.... somethin wrong with the whole salt shaker?

Answer 5

The origin of the phrase 'Taken with a pinch of salt' goes as far back as AD77 and the latin Addito Salis Grano written by Pliny the Elder. The elderly Pliny had discovered the story of King Mithridates VI, who once ruled Pontos and built up his immunity to poisoning by fasting and then taking regular doses of poison with a single grain of salt in an effort to make it more palatable.

Hope that helps!

Answer 6

When someone tells you to take it with a grain of salt you should go and look at 1 grain of salt.
You would quickly see how small it is and how much weight it carrys.
The words and actions of some people should be given as much consideration as that 1 grain of salt.

Answer 7

take something with a grain of salt:
to consider something to be not completely true or right.

"I've read the article, which I take with a grain of salt."

Related vocabulary: hard to swallow

Etymology: based on the idea that food tastes better and is easier to swallow if you add a little salt

Answer 8

take something with a grain of salt
to consider something to be not completely true or right. I've read the article, which I take with a grain of salt.
Related vocabulary: hard to swallow
Etymology: based on the idea that food tastes better and is easier to swallow if you add a little salt

Answer 9

it's just like the question I'll take it with a grain of salt..

Answer 10

Salt was a commodity valued higher than some forms of money at one point in history. It was scarce. A grain of salt may have been something seen as valuable previously to sudden easy access to it and therefore reduced to a social amenity in conversation when the rich had greater access to it even than the poor or middle class. Now the term means (don't fret over it)