salary：薪水和鹽有什麼關係？
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.
每個月，都有數以百萬計的人查看銀行帳戶，看看薪水（salary）入帳了沒。可是很少人知道，「salary」這個字和鹽有關。
「salary」來自拉丁文單字 salarium，它的核心是 sal，也就是拉丁文的「鹽」。在古羅馬，salarium 是發給士兵和官員的某種報酬，而且顯然和鹽有某種關聯。
到底是什麼關聯，到現在還是個謎。一種流行的說法是，羅馬士兵的薪水是用鹽來發的；另一種說法是，士兵會領到一筆專門用來買鹽的錢。歷史學家不確定哪一種說法是真的，但薪水和鹽扯上關係一點也不奇怪。在古代，鹽極其珍貴。在冰箱出現以前，鹽幾乎是讓肉和魚不會壞掉的唯一方法，人們會把鹽運到非常遙遠的地方去交易。義大利一些最古老的道路，就是為了運鹽而修建的。
這種關聯一直延續到今天的英文裡。如果你說某人「worth their salt」（值得他的鹽），意思是這個人很稱職，對得起他領的薪水。而如果你覺得一個說法不完全可信，你可以說你會「with a pinch of salt」（配一撮鹽）來聽，也就是「半信半疑」。
所以，下次領薪水的時候，別忘了：你領到的是你的「鹽」。