What are you reading?

[so lacklustre]

Why were soldiers named after the French for salt?

[noiseradio]

Sorry. I left that out. Many soldiers were paid in salt, which was a valuable commodity. This was so common that the very name for a professional warrior became soldier. One who was identified by how they were paid. Why the french term for salt would be more common than any other I do not know. But the English word for soldier is from the French.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Noise: Chambers, normally very good on etymology, cites both Old French 'soldier' but also Latin 'solidus', 'a piece of money, the pay of a soldier', which sounds pretty likely, more than being paid in salt, perhaps? But did the Old French derive from the Latin, or was it derived from salt, in which case the ref to 'solidus' is spurious. I guess Mark Kurlansky has done his homework. I love etymology.

MK wrote the book about cod, too. The history of Northern Europe traced though the world of cod. It was almost a new publishing genre - a retelling of history through a narrow angle that emerges as far more significant than might have been assumed: Cod, Porcelain, Longitude...

Maybe his next book will be a history of salt cod.

[Jackson Doofster]

i'm re-reading Donna Tarte's 'Secret History'. One of my favourite books of the past 15 years.

[noiseradio]

Being paid in salt was extrememly common. That's where we get the expression that someone is "worth their salt." I think I lean to Kurlansky's position. He's pretty thorough.

I love Cod as well. he also wrote an excellent account of the history of the Basque. I think his next book should be about pepper. He could sell them as a set.

[SweetPear]

Besides this board....The Dance of Intimacy given to me by my therapist.

Yay.