Ever Wonder Why someone is "not worth his salt"?

At one time soldiers in ancient Rome were paid, in part, with a ration of salt called a salarium, from the Latin word sal meeting salt.  If a soldier’s performance was not up to standard that soldier was said to be “not worth his salt”.

 

Later when the salt was replaced with a money allowance to buy the salt, the allowance itself was called a salarium.  Eventually salarium came to mean the wages themselves and this led to a higher calling ones pay a “salary”.