old salt
1
8.0
- noun
- Informal
:
marinero veterano
- It's an old salt—some kind of hapless night watchman—and his face goes bone-white at the sight of the carnage on the docks.
Examples
-
Surprisingly, the commander of these old salts is 29-year-old Mike Robirds.
Blog text (17) -
You've got some old salt in your blood.
-
Well, old salt, we're hittin' the road.
-
Lucy also said that: "A lot of old salts were coming up saying, 'it's a death trap.'" ,
Blog text (9) -
The old salt.
-
Still, two years older than Kiermaier and in his seventh pro season—a veritable old salt compared to Kiermaier.
Blog text (11) -
With decades of experience at sea, the old salt shared stories of his adventures with the young crew.
-
As a seasoned old salt, he could navigate stormy waters with ease and confidence.
-
The old salt knew every trick of the trade and often taught new sailors how to handle rough seas.
Synonyms
How Experienced
Surface Forms
Morphology
old + salt
The adjective 'old' transparently signals experience, but 'salt' is used metaphorically here to mean a sailor rather than the literal mineral. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words would be unlikely to derive 'experienced sailor' without prior exposure, though the experiential cue from 'old' and any sea-association of 'salt' provide a partial hint.
Etymology
Old salt comes from life at sea: the word salt points to sea salt on sailors' skin and to salted food, while old shows a long time at sea, so 'salt' became a way to say someone was tough and experienced. That's why an old salt means 'an experienced sailor'.