Attic salt

English 2017 October 28 thumb|Démosthène s'exerçant à la parole (Demosthenes Practising Oratory, 1870) by Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ, from a private collection. Demosthenes (384 – 12 October 322 ), a Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens, was known for his wit. Etymology en Attic + en salt; a en la sāl Atticus 1 or la sāl Atticum. In classical times “salt” was a frequent metaphor for “wit”. Pronunciation en /ˈatɪk sɔːlt/ /ˈatɪk sɒlt/ RP en /ˈætɪk sɑlt/ /ˈætɪk sɔlt/ /-ɾɪk/ GA en en-au-Attic salt.ogg AU en At tic salt Noun - en idiomatic Pointed and delicate wit. en Thomas Flloyd LUCANUS (Marcus Annæus) https://books.google.com/books?id=B7I8AAAAYAAJ&pg=PP302 Bibliotheca Biographica: A Synopsis of Universal Biography, Ancient and Modern. Containing a Circumstantial and Curious Detail of the Lives, Actions, Opinions, Writings, and Characters of the Most Celebrated Persons, of Both Sexes, of All Ranks, in All Countries, and in All Ages: Alphabetically Disposed. [...] London Printed for J. Hinton, in Newgate-Street; L. Davis and C. Reymers, opposite Gray's-Inn, Holborn; R[ichard] Baldwin in Pater-noster-Row; and J[ohn] Walter, at Charing-Cross 1760 II (Dac–Nor) paginated His [Lucan's] wit, ſays Ablancourt, was full of urbanity, that Attic ſalt which the French call fine raillery; not obſcene, not groſs, not rude, but facetious, well-mannered, and well-bred. III 3 Triumph swam in my father’s eyes, at the repartee—the Attic salt brought water into them—and so Obadiah heard no more about it. The idea opened a view into the very world in which he wished to live. To what might it not have given rise? what delightful intimacies,—what public praise,—to what Athenian banquets and rich flavour of '''Attic salt? The Country of Elusion As the dinner waned, hands reached for the pepper cruet rather than for the shaker of Attic salt. 1918 2 9 435 https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.96777/page/n449/mode/1up Koznyshev, who knew better than anyone how at the end of a most abstract and serious dispute unexpectedly to administer a grain of Attic salt and thereby to change his interlocutor's frame of mind, did so now. en H[ugh] F[raser] Stewart Pascal in Debate The Secret of Pascal Cambridge At the University Press 1941 776538812 1st paperback Cambridge w:Cambridge University Press 2011 7 https://books.google.com/books?id=rEITTf34vjEC&pg=PA7 978-0-521-23780-2 But Attic salt is not the sole preservative against the decay that threatens all human writings; nor can mere eloquence rekindle the ashes of a dead controversy. Translations pointed and delicate wit Dutch: nl Attisch zout n Finnish: fi attikalainen suola French: fr sel attique m, fr atticisme m Galician: gl sal ático m German: de attisches Salz n Greek: el Αττικόν άλας Hungarian: hu attikai só, hu elmésség, hu élc, hu szellemesség Italian: it Latin: la sāl Atticum m, la sāl Atticus m Polish: pl sól attycka f Portuguese: pt sal ático m Russian: ru Spanish: es Turkish: Ottoman Turkish: ota نمك nemek Further reading laconic phrase#Uses Laconic phrase – uses en Rhetoric en terms derived from toponyms