Why Salt Was So Important Throughout History • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Salt Was So Important Throughout History

#71

Post by foobarchu » Tue, Jul 31, 2018, 11:02 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #62

lgessler wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you showed a tube of ground meat to some people and asked if it looked like a sausage, most would agree it does without insisting that you check to see if it has salt. While you're right about the word's etymological history[1], there is nothing that prevents words from obtaining new meanings that might seem like they're at odds with their etymological histories. A good example of this: nice[2]. [1]: https://www.e…

I don't know anybody who would call this a sausage: https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/Kirkland-Signature-Le...

Conversely, that tube of meat wouldn't become a sausage simply because you put salt on it. There's obviously a lot of nuance involved.

Re: Why Salt Was So Important Throughout History

#72

Post by cup-of-tea » Wed, Aug 01, 2018, 12:05 PM UTC

kbutler wrote: post #69

cup-of-tea wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. If you remove salt or sauce from salad then it's just cut up vegetables. And a sauce without salt won't be very popular too say the least.

So the bowl of vegetables is not the salad, but the runny stuff in the bottle is? And so much for applesauce. sigh I guess that's no true sauce, man.

In French it's called compote de pommes which I would say is correct. It's a compote, not a sauce.

The runny stuff is a sauce. Salad really just means adding salt to it. In Italy they don't use a sauce as such, but rather just add oil, vinegar and salt separately.

But I get what you're doing. You're taking the extreme approach of "etymology never matters". I get it. I'm able to enjoy the etymology of words and the difference between a sauce and a compote and still say "apple sauce" when I'm talking to English speakers.

Re: Why Salt Was So Important Throughout History

#73

Post by lgessler » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

philwelch wrote: post #62

lgessler wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you showed a tube of ground meat to some people and asked if it looked like a sausage, most would agree it does without insisting that you check to see if it has salt. While you're right about the word's etymological history[1], there is nothing that prevents words from obtaining new meanings that might seem like they're at odds with their etymological histories. A good example of this: nice[2]. [1]: https://www.e…

I don't know anybody who would call this a sausage: https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/Kirkland-Signature-Le...

Would anybody call it a sausage if there were salt in it? I'm inclined to say no. Obviously there's a lot more that goes into sausage-ness than being a tube of meat.