attic salt
/ˈætɪk sɑlt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.59 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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?"
- "As the dinner waned, hands reached for the pepper cruet rather than for the shaker of Attic salt."
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈætɪk sɑlt/
- British English: /ˈatɪk sɔːlt/