Let's have a stupid debate about the phrase: "Take with a grain of salt".

In My Humble Opinion
1

So we all know: “Take that with a grain of salt”.

So times I’ve seen folks on this board and others, who want to use this phrase with an extra added emphasis: “I’ll take that with a huge grain of salt”.

Of course, it’s obvious what the speaker is trying to say, but wouldn’t the proper term be: “I’ll take that with a very, very, tiny grain of salt”? (Or some variant of)

2

Consider the meaning is that you need to add salt in order to tolerate the taste. So, the worse off it is to begin with, the more salt you need. So, something that is mildly dubious may only require a small grain of salt while something that is batshit crazy requires a lot of salt.

3

I agree that the bigger the uncertainty the more salt you need. My preferred phrase is: “I’ll take that with a pillar of salt.”

4

Right. The origin of the phrase is believed to be that a grain of salt was included either as an antidote to poison, or in order to help a medicine go down. So the more difficult a thing is to swallow, the more salt you need to help it go down. So “huge grain of salt” makes sense (although it would be better as “a handful of salt”).

5

Okay, I may have my origins wrong then. I could have sworn I read the phrase came from when salt was used as a form of currency. So when you take something with a grain of salt, you’re basically giving it little worth.

So a smaller grain would be even less worth.

6

I’d like a spoonful of sugar, please.

7

I think that notion is like fish & chips, best taken with large grains of salt.

8

Also, margaritas. “I’ll have my Cadillac Margarita with large grains of salt…around the rim…”

9

I’ll bet you use that phrase a Lot.

10

I thought the phrase originated in societies or cultures where taking salt was tantamount to an oath of truthfulness that obligated you to tell the truth. So if you said you were taking a grain of salt in response to someone else’s statement, you were calling their bluff and indirectly accusing them of lying.

11

I remember the old cartoon from Herblock during the Watergate era. In a bookstore with the latest White House memoirs, the clerk tells a customer: “With every one we give a free bag of salt.”