Once known as "white gold," salt is essential to life. No wonder it's trickled into German idioms. And oversalting is seen as a sign that you're in love...
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10 German expressions with salt
Too much salt in your food? You must be in love. German has a whole array of idioms revolving around salt. Click through the gallery to learn some!
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Salz und Brot macht Wangen rot
"Salt and bread turn your cheeks rosy." This expression implies that basic, hearty food keeps you healthy. But be aware that some versions of the same proverb switch the word "salt" to "dry" bread or even "beer," so it's not exactly the most reliable nutrition guide.
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Jemandem die Suppe versalzen
Literally, to "oversalt someone's soup": It means to ruin something someone has made or planned. In English, we'd say "to put a spoke in someone's wheel." Another related German-language expression is "to spit in someone's soup." So if you have enemies, it might be safer not to leave your stew unattended...
Image: picture-alliance/CHROMORANGE/B. Neveu
Das Essen ist versalzen, du bist verliebt
"The food is too salty; you must be in love." Apparently, this proverb could prove true: An independent study a few years back by a Bremerhaven research institute showed that people who had recently fallen in love did not taste salt as intensively as single people or those in long-term relationships. Initial research revealed that increased hormone levels heightened the salt taste threshold.
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Alte Ziegen lecken auch gern Salz
This expression could make the more modest blush. Referring to the fact that goats need salt to help maintain their appetite and body weight, it literally translates as "old goats also like to lick salt" — and implies that older people still have sexual needs, too.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/F. Senna
Ich hab einen Schinken bei ihm im Salze
Literally, "I have a ham in his salts," it essentially means there's something still stewing, something still to deliver or take care of, or perhaps you still need to repay someone something.
Image: picture-alliance/imagechina/Y. Shuiling
Salz in die Wunde streuen
While the German expression says "to shake salt in a wound," the English version is obviously "to rub salt in the wound," meaning to make an unpleasant situation even worse. In German, you don't even need to rub it in to make it hurt...
While we say "love is the spice of life" in English, this German expression says "friendship is the salt of life." Whether love or friendship, certainly both are essential! It's just getting the right mixture (or flavor) that's sometimes tricky.
Image: Fotolia/Sebastian Gauert
Den Freund zu erkennen, musst du erst ein Scheffel Salz mit ihm gegessen haben
The idiom comes from a line in Goethe's "Hermann and Dorothea": "Ere you share a bushel of salt with a new-found acquaintance, do not trust him too readily." Only time can tell if this person will become a true friend, the poem adds. With how many people have you shared an entire sack of salt? That's more than walking a mile in someone else's shoes...
Image: Alexander Dluzak
Salz der Erde sein
Taken from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, the expression being the "salt of the Earth" is used in German as in English as encouragement for giving the best of oneself. The title of a book by Pope Benedict XVI, a song by the Rolling Stones, as well as of various other albums and films, the metaphor can also refer to a good, honest, hard-working person.
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Wo der Pfeffer wächst
While it has nothing to do with salt, it does have to do with its constant companion: pepper. If you want to ban someone you don't like from your presence, you send them off to "wo der Pfeffer wächst" — where pepper grows. That means to disappear and never come back. Since black pepper originated in India, the German saying implied a faraway place.
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Nowadays, it often gets a bad rap as a health risk from overuse in processed foods. But formerly, natural salt was considered a precious commodity — so much so, that it was dubbed "white gold" as it played a central role in the development of the environment and human civilization.
Before the invention of refrigeration, it was used to preserve meat, fish and vegetables, which ensured there was enough to eat over a long winter. Adventurers could likewise set out on longer journeys with sufficient provisions in their packs. It was traded for goods and services; roads were built for its transport.
In Europe, the Celts and the Romans valued it highly, with the latter having paid its soldiers enough wages to buy salt, or paid them in salt cakes, hence the origin of the English word "salary," from the Latin "salarium," with the "sal" root meaning "salt."
Environmentally destructive sodium chloride dump heap, a byproduct of potash mining, in Lower Saxony, GermanyImage: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
Many uses for salt
With modern mining methods, it's possible to extract and process it from underground deposits or from rock. But for centuries, and still today, people have also harvested it from seawater, channeling the water into small ponds that evaporate and leave behind salt crystals that harden in the sun. This method gives rise to the precious Fleur de Sel.
While adding tangy flavor to food, as well as being used for a wide variety of industrial purposes, such as cleaning, it is still praised for its medicinal value. Gargling with salt water soothes a sore throat; it is also used in therapies to alleviate respiratory or skin problems. And, of course, it's also essential for our bodies to survive.
Given its importance, it's no wonder that salt has trickled down into language.
Click through the gallery above to view some of the German idioms involving salt.
