A grain of salt
Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:About
To take something with a "grain of salt" or "pinch of salt" is an English idiom that suggests to view something, specifically claims that may be misleading or unverified, with skepticism or not to interpret something literally.<ref>Webster's New World College Dictionary</ref>
In the old-fashioned English units of weight, a grain weighs approximately 65 mg, which is about how much table salt a person might pick up between the fingers as a pinch.
History
The phrase is thought to come from Pliny the Elder's Naturalis Historia, regarding the discovery of a recipe written by the Pontic king Mithridates to make someone immune to poison.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> One of the ingredients in the recipe was a grain of salt. Threats involving poison were thus to be taken "with a grain of salt", and therefore less seriously.
The phrase Template:Lang ("with a grain of salt") is not what Pliny wrote. Pliny's actual words were Template:Lang ("after having added a grain of salt").
The Latin word Template:Lang (Template:Lang is the genitive) means both "salt" and "wit", thus the Latin phrase Template:Lang could be translated to either "with a grain of salt" or "with a grain of wit", actually to "with caution"/cautiously.<ref>Book 23: LXXVII: 149.</ref>
The phrase is typically said "with a pinch of salt" in British English and said "with a grain of salt" in American English.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>