Worth my Salt

Watch this on YouTube here - Salt Video - YouTube Video

Meaning:

Worth my Salt means you want to prove you can be effective and efficient; that you are deserving of your pay.

Origin:

The origin of this idiom is not very old even though salt being used as money has been around for a while. Our word salary derives from the Latin word , Latin also has the word salt as sal. So using salt as money or another word for money has been around for a while.

So “worth my salt” is really saying “I am worth my Salary”

The phrase “worth my Salt” however has not been around that long though. It does have an older sister phrase with a similar meaning from the 13 century “worth one’s weight in gold” but, that is another video.

Worth my salt wasn’t first seen in writing till 1805 in The African Memoranda by Philip Beaver it read:

"Hayles has been my most useful man, but of late not worth his salt."

Example:

Today we do not see this phrase used as much, but if we do use it, it is a way of saying you are worth a lot. That you will earn your pay. You will prove you are worth your salary. An example sentence is:

“Any teacher worth their salt is able to inspire their students.”

Watch this on YouTube here - Salt Video - YouTube Video

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