What does "Take it with a grain of Salt" mean?

[phillipmo]

In one article, “What’s the story on secret Mormon weddings?” you use the term and it set me to wondering where that term originated.

[C_K_Dexter_Haven]

First, welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, phillipmo, we’re glad to have you with us.

Second, Evan Morris (“The Word Detective”) at www.word-detective.com says:

To “take something with a grain of salt,” of course, means to not entirely believe a story, or to view it with a healthy degree of skepticism. …

… “with a grain of salt” [is] … actually a translation of the Latin phrase “cum grano salis.” There seems to be a bit of a debate about the significance of the Latin phrase, however. Etymologist Christine Ammer traces it to Pompey’s discovery, recorded by Pliny in 77 A.D., of an antidote to poison which had to be taken with a small amount of salt to be effective. Everyone else seems to bypass that explanation and trace “with a grain of salt” to the dinner table, where a dash of salt can often make uninspired cooking more palatable. “With a grain of salt” first appeared in English in 1647, and has been in constant use since then. The amount of salt metaphorically needed to make an unlikely statement acceptable often varies from a few grains to a few pounds. With all the flapdoodle being thrust at us these days, I’m surprised there isn’t a national salt shortage.

And third, although your question is loosely tied to a Staff Report, it’s really an independent question, so I’m moving it to the General Questions forum, which is more approrpriate.

[John_W.Kennedy]

It’s at least as old as Pliny (1st. century A.D.). It still turns up in Latin as cum grano salis. Pliny speaks of Pompey the Great having discovered a universal antidote to all poisons, of which a single grain of salt was a necessary ingredient. Some doubt that this is the origin of the English phrase, because the connection is not clear, but I am not aware of any better alternative.