[ti:Salt Is More Than a Four-Letter Word] [ar:Jonathan Evans & Anna Matteo] [al:Words and Their Stories] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]On today's Words and Their Stories [00:07.81]we talk about a common word, a small word, [00:11.85]but a word that is completely necessary for human life. [00:16.64]In fact, without this simple, [00:19.91]everyday material, all humans would die. [00:24.11]Scientists know it as sodium chloride. [00:31.40]We know it as salt. [00:33.72]You may think, salt is just a simple cooking element [00:38.51]we shake on our food for a little extra taste. [00:42.11]But salt is much more than that. [00:45.26]Without salt our muscles would not move. [00:49.47]Our nervous systems would not operate. [00:53.22]Our hearts would not beat. Salt means life. [00:58.35]But do not think rubbing salt in a wound will help. [01:03.49]Doing that would be painful and not heal the wound. [01:08.10]To rub salt in a wound is an idiom [01:12.02]that means to purposefully make a bad situation worse. [01:17.35]Early humans got the salt they needed to stay alive [01:22.43]from the animals they killed. [01:24.63]But advances in agriculture led to a diet low in salt. [01:31.15]So, humans needed to find others sources. [01:35.86]Those who lived near the ocean [01:39.27]or other natural sources for salt were lucky. [01:43.32]Those who did not had to trade for salt. [01:48.04]In fact, people used salt as a method of payment [01:52.59]in many parts of the ancient world. [01:55.31]The word "salary" comes from the word "salt." [02:00.02]Salt also played an important part [02:03.50]in population movement and world exploration. [02:07.31]Explorers understood that if they could keep food fresh, [02:12.35]they could travel longer distances. [02:14.90]So they used salt to preserve food and explored the world. [02:21.31]Salt meant movement. [02:24.26]Salt also changed the way nations fought. [02:29.30]With preserved food on ships, [02:31.97]nations could sail to distant lands ... and then attack them. [02:37.21]Salt meant power. [02:39.64]Salt was so important that, [02:42.55]according to food historians, [02:45.42]it was traded pound-for-pound for gold. [02:48.87]Today, people still use the expressions [02:53.35]to be worth one's salt or worth one's weight in salt. [02:57.98]The expressions describe a person [03:00.83]who is useful, a person of value. [03:03.78]A person might also be called salt of the earth. [03:08.69]That description means he or she is dependable and trustworthy. [03:15.05]The phrase comes from the Christian Bible. [03:18.18]Jesus called his loyal group of followers -- [03:21.76]or disciples -- the salt of the earth. [03:25.66]But one of these disciples was not so loyal. [03:30.49]The disciple Judas betrayed Jesus. [03:34.58]In his famous painting "The Last Supper," [03:38.24]Leonardo da Vinci shows Judas spilling a bowl of salt. [03:43.17]Spilled salt is a sign of bad luck and trouble. [03:47.95]And trouble is exactly what Judas gave Jesus. [03:53.18]Even today, some people throw salt [03:57.80]over one shoulder if they spill it. [04:00.54]They believe throwing salt behind them [04:03.78]scares any devil that has been following them -- [04:07.21]or at least blinds it for a second while they run away. [04:11.66]But these stories about bad luck [04:14.83]should be taken with a grain of salt. [04:17.58]In other words, listen to a story [04:20.80]or an explanation with suspicion and distrust. [04:24.61]But you don't have to take the information you find [04:28.59]on VOA Learning English with a grain of salt. [04:31.67]We do our research. [04:33.39]And this research led to some interesting facts [04:37.71]about salt in other cultures and religions. [04:41.04]In 2200 BC, the Chinese emperor Xia Yu [04:47.07]created one of the first known taxes. [04:50.75]He taxed salt. [04:53.14]And Egyptians preserved dead bodies with salt, [04:57.96]creating mummies. [04:59.21]The Catholic Church uses salt in many of its rituals. [05:04.57]Buddhists use salt to prevent evil. [05:07.88]In Japan, [05:09.84]the Shinto religion uses salt to clean an area of evil. [05:14.76]In the U.S. Southwest, [05:17.55]the Pueblo people worship the Salt Mother. [05:21.25]And in 1933, the Dalai Lama was buried sitting up in a bed of salt. [05:28.69]Today in India, salt is still a symbol of good luck. [05:33.56]What about your culture? [05:36.28]Do you have any idioms or expressions about salt? [05:40.67]In the comments section, [05:43.07]share a story of salt from your culture. [05:46.18]I'm Jonathan Evans. [05:48.18]And I'm Anna Matteo. [05:50.29]Join us again for another Words and Their Stories, [05:53.66]where we take a deeper look at words in American English. [05:57.67]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51voa.com