salt of the earth
9
6.1
- idiom
- /sɔlt əv ði ɜrθ/
- Informal
:
sal de la tierra
- In every community, you can find individuals who are truly the salt of the earth.
- salt of the earth people
- good salt of the earth
- salt of the earth guy
Jesus said be the salt of the earth, be the yeast.
- Jesus said be the salt of the earth, be the yeast.
- But he's not representative of this middle America, salt of the earth guy.
- Climbers are salt of the earth as a general rule.
- They're, you know, they're salt of the earth and they see it first.
Examples
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They're fine people, salt of the earth.
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This here man is the salt of the earth.
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Scott, you are the salt of the earth.
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That man was salt of the earth.
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You really are the salt of the earth, you know that, Andrew?
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However far we climb, the workers are the salt of the earth.
Blog text (34) -
He was the salt of the earth.
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I think you're the salt of the earth.
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You're the real salt of the earth.
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They are the salt of the earth, and they'’re one of the backbones of this country.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
salt + of + the + earth
The phrase's meaning ('an admirable, honest, reliable person') is not a literal combination of 'salt' and 'earth', so a learner who only knows the constituent words would not fully derive the idiomatic sense. However, the metaphorical use of 'salt' to denote value or essential goodness is somewhat accessible (and exists in some other languages/cultural references), so the association can be partly guessed rather than being completely opaque.
Etymology
Salt of the earth comes from the Bible, where salt was a useful, valuable thing that kept food from going bad and added flavor. Calling someone the salt of the earth compares them to that salt: they make life better and are 'honest' and 'reliable'.