"Take it with a grain of salt" etymolgy?

[jdl]

What is the origin of the idiom, “Take it with a grain of salt?”

Also, can you recommend a website that lists idiom etymologies?

[Trion]

Hows this:

With a grain of salt

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: 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.

Thanks to Ron Akers

The phrase and meaning is thousands of years old, the Latin equivalent phrase is “cum grano salis”.

Thanks to Barry Harridge and Richard Laurent

From this web site.

[dtilque]

The first place to look for this kind of stuff is The Word Detective. If you look in the index of back issues, you will find his column on grain of salt among many other columns on word and phrase origins.