salary：工资和盐有什么关系？
Every month, millions of people check their bank accounts to see if their salary has arrived. But very few of them know that the word "salary" has something to do with salt.
"Salary" comes from the Latin word salarium. At its heart is sal, the Latin word for salt. In ancient Rome, a salarium was a payment of some kind given to soldiers and officials, and it was clearly connected to salt in some way.
Exactly how is still a mystery. A popular story says that Roman soldiers were paid in salt. Another says they were given money to buy salt. Historians aren't sure either story is true, but the link with salt is not surprising. Salt was extremely valuable in the ancient world. Before fridges existed, it was one of the only ways to keep meat and fish from going bad, and it was traded across huge distances. Some of the oldest roads in Italy were built to carry salt.
The connection lives on in English today. If you say someone is "worth their salt", you mean they are good at their job and deserve what they are paid. And if you think a story might not be completely true, you might say you take it "with a pinch of salt".
So next time payday comes around, remember: you're getting your salt.
每个月，都有数以百万计的人查看银行账户，看看工资（salary）到账了没有。可是很少有人知道，“salary”这个词和盐有关。
“salary”来自拉丁语单词 salarium，它的核心是 sal，也就是拉丁语里的“盐”。在古罗马，salarium 是发给士兵和官员的某种报酬，而且显然和盐有某种联系。
具体是什么联系，至今仍是个谜。一种流行的说法是，罗马士兵的工资是用盐来发的；另一种说法是，士兵会领到一笔专门买盐的钱。历史学家并不确定哪种说法是真的，但工资和盐扯上关系一点也不奇怪。在古代，盐极其珍贵。在冰箱出现之前，盐几乎是让肉和鱼不变质的唯一办法，人们会把盐运到非常遥远的地方去交易。意大利一些最古老的道路，就是为了运盐而修建的。
这种联系一直延续到今天的英语里。如果你说某人“worth their salt”（值得他的盐），意思是这个人很称职，对得起他拿的工资。而如果你觉得一个说法不完全可信，你可以说你会“with a pinch of salt”（就着一撮盐）来听，也就是“半信半疑”。
所以，下次发工资的时候，别忘了：你领到的是你的“盐”。