In a review of a book about salt in New Scientist, it says that "Gaul" is derived from Greek "hal".

And the connection to salt is...?

I can't answer the question, if question there is; however, this http:// http://www.giveshare.org/israel/french/chapter6.html is a truly weird site -I give it little credence.

The only other comment I have to make, broadly on this topic, is that calling someone "Welsh" is a term of abuse, or was originally meant to be, since it means barbarian =]

alexis

> truly weird site

mmm, indeed - that only-on-the-web mixture of warped scholarship and a complete crock of shite :)

And the connection to salt is...?

I would guess that the root hal- being the root of halite was the connection.

Here, BTW, is the cleaned up and working version of alexis's link:

http://www.giveshare.org/israel/french/chapter6.html

I haven't looked at it, so I give it less of a good review than does alexis.

Oh-- next month I am going to a book club discussion of the book on salt. it will be a 2 hour discussion, with the author, (and of course a book signing..)

Next week's book club meeting (one a month) is with Michael Pollan (who's name came up in a thread about apt names ~the spelling of that words eludes me right now), on his book Botany of Desire-- Local musuem sponsers the bookclub.

calling someone "Welsh" is a term of
abuse, or was originally meant to be, since it means barbarian =]

So, the ancient Welsh had beards? (Latin barberi = bearded ones) That's why I was shocked to see Russell Crowe wearing a beard in the movie, Gladiator. They would have thrown him to the lions for that!

mmm, indeed - that only-on-the-web mixture of warped scholarship and a complete crock of shite :)

However, if it were true it would explain an awful lot about the Welsh. Not to mention the Irish!

So, the ancient Welsh had beards?

Or spoke in a language incomprehensible to the Greeks, sounding like nothing so much as "Bar bar bar" as other notions as to the origin of the word barbarian would have it.

The beard went in and out of fashion among the Romans (as presumably among the Greeks) as it does among modern cultures. Marcus Aurelius, Commodus' daddy and Maximus' fave emperor, is generally depicted wearing one his own se'f.

http://www.pantheism.net/images/marcusa.jpg

Here is a link to first chapter of the book: http://www.saltbook.com/chapter.php

Ms. de Troy: You're going to a book club discussion of Botany of Desire with Michael Pollan himself?! Cool?!

I'm reading the book right now, and it's really great, Very interesting, vastly easier to read than much of non-fiction, and full of all kinds of cool little historical and scientific factoids. I love the whole debunking (forgive the loaded term here) of the legend of Johnny Appleseed - turns out he was planting seeds to grow apple trees to make applejack liquor, and that's why he was so popular.

The site of the link above contains more links, one of which yielded this bit of history:

The grand designs of Philip II
of Spain came undone through the Dutch Revolt at the end of the 16th Century; one of the keys,
according to Montesquieu, was the successful Dutch blockade of Iberian saltworks which led directly to
Spanish bankruptcy.

A cause of the French Revolution I never heard of before: The gabelle, a salt tax: it is in my cictionary.

France has always been a
major producer of salt and any discussion of saltmaking in France includes discussion of the gabelle, the
salt tax which was a significant cause of the French Revolution ( 1 2 ), but salt remains important
today. The magnitude of the gabelle is mind-boggling; from 1630 to 1710, the tax increased tenfold
from 14 times the cost of production to 140 times the cost of production, according to Pierre Laszlo in
his book Salt: Grain of Life (Columbia Univ. Press).

An archive of fascinating facts such as this one— "The word for 'salt' apparently originates from the
name of the town Es-Salt, once the capital of the east bank of the Jordan, and probably older than
Jericho itself, and close to the Dead Sea."

item from history: Because so much salted meat was eaten, eight pints of beer a day were needed. And Sweden imported large amount of hops, because it greatly improved keeping qualities of beer.

Yep. And ribght down the road from Bat Teree

Commercial break with truly mind-ringing jingling:

No salt salts like Morton Salt salts!


Beeboppin' regards,
WW

Dear TEd & WW: Your posts do you great credit.

My father told the story about Dickie 1 of England, who was the first recipient on an organ transplant, a heart given to him cross-species from a lion, hence his nickname. Someone asked him if he ever felt any pain. He replied, "No, it never pains, but it roars."

Ted, if you just thought of that off the top o' your head, you're in a class almost by yourself. Are you one of the panelists on "My Word" by any chance?

Best regards,
WordWaster by comparison

I suspect phrases like that just jump out all the time, from the hop of his TEd...

Ribght?

WW:

A great many of them do come off the top of my head, but many more of them are carefully stacked in what I hope is an almost endless memory bank. I have a very good ear for words and a good eye for absurdity. And sometimes even a halfway-decent sense of humor. I also remember things like this for decades. I have almost total recall for jokes and puns when I am provided with a stimulus. In this case it was Morton salt, who knows what it will be next.

I'd be willing to bet that something reminds me of a joke at least 25 times a day. Most often in a situation where I can't tell it, but at least I amuse myself!

There's apparently an hereditary factor at work. My father was the source of many of my jokes, including the Morton salt one. And two weeks ago I was sitting in the hot tub with the kids, teaching them to sing,

When the moon hits the sky
Like a big pizza pie,
That's amore.

Sasha (just turned four) laughed and said, "No, Daddy, when the moon hits the sky like a big pizza pie, tha's a more B."

In addition to my father, the other person in my life who gets a large amount of credit (some might say blame) for the development of my sense of humor is Bennett Cerf. That man collected jokes the way some people collect pennies. And a hell of a lot of them were puns.

I revel, as do all punsters, in the quick one-liner that comes almost unbidden to the lips, but I also like and have a lot of fun with shaggy dog stories. I actually have enough of them to put together a book, which I keep threatening to do. I can also tell them pretty well, also. Like my daughter, shy I am not.

TEd

PS

What is "My Word"?

T.

You're lucky, Ted, that you remember jokes and puns. I hardly ever remember a single joke.

"My Word" is a BBC radio quiz game I used to listen to when I used to listen to NPR before I went cold-turkey and stopped listening to the radio at all because my theshold for hearing anything at all painful was extremely lowered after the 11th. "My Word" was great fun. Sometimes the panelists would trace the origins of famous sayings, and their stories were full of clever puns for which they were awarded points. Your stories are right up there in their league.

Best regards,
WorldWeary

your word is most obviously paronomasiac-- you most definately are one!
and i couldn't remember it, but i could find it in my funny little book of words that i unearthed.. because it had a punny picture.. about cadillacs, i mean Cattle Acts.. which i am sure you'll be able to explain to everyone here!

Maybe someone here can I confirm or deny a long-standing suspicion I've had [yes, I've been too lazy to work it out myself]: is the word salary related to the word salt ? I've heard that Roman soldiers used to get paid partially in salt, because it was a valuable commodity.

alexis

confirm

yes.

AWAD: GOOGLE!