What's the reasoning behind the metaphorical expression "as still as salt"?

[Jamee Zhao]

I encountered the expression "as still as salt" in the novel Peter Panby J. M. Barrie. I vaguely understand it means the environment is very quiet at the moment, somehow I couldn't figure out the reasoning behind this metaphor. What is the connection between "salt" and "still"？I would very much appreciate your help.

[Jaleel10]

Hi, Jamee!

First I must stress that this is NOT a common expression. I've never heard nor used it in my life.

As for the reasoning behind it it. Nothing obvious comes to mind but it might have something to do with Lot's wife, a biblical person from the Book of Genesis, who became a pillar of salt after she looked back at Sodom. If she is a pillar of salt, well then I guess she can't move or speak haha ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Other than that, I have no clue

[Jamee Zhao]

Hi, Jamee!

First I must stress that this is NOT a common expression. I've never heard nor used it in my life.

As for the reasoning behind it it. Nothing obvious comes to mind but it might have something to do with Lot's wife, a biblical person from the Book of Genesis, who became a pillar of salt after she looked back at Sodom. If she is a pillar of salt, well then I guess she can't move or speak haha ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Other than that, I have no clue

It is very helpful to me. Thank you

[Speakeasy]

Jamee, as for yourself and Jaleel10, I have never before encountered the expression “as still as salt”; nevertheless, as salt is an inanimate substance, I fully agree that its presence in the phrase “as still as …” evokes calmness, tranquillity, quietness, lifelessness and the like.

J.M. Barrie may have learned this otherwise remote expression in his youth in Scotland or, as an very imaginative writer, he could have just as easily devised it himself. He was known to play with the language as in “’Curiouser and curiouser’ cried Alice.”

Most languages are pervaded by thousands of popular metaphors, aphorisms, colloquiums, and idiomatic expressions the meanings of which, for a native-speaker, are often immediately clear upon first encounter. The authors of these flavourful particles are rarely credited.

As an aside, your ability to grasp the works of J.M. Barrie suggests to me far too much modesty in your self-evaluation as a “beginner” in English.

EDITED:
Typos!
Tinkering.

[patrickwilken]

Sounds like someone else had the same question a few years ago on another forum. People were equally stumped.

https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/thre ... ll-as-salt

[Speakeasy]

Patrick, very nice catch, indeed!

[Deinonysus]

J.M. Barrie may have learned this otherwise remote expression in his youth in Scotland or, as an very imaginative writer, he could have just as easily devised it himself. He was known to play with the language as in “’Curiouser and curiouser’ cried Alice.”

Quick correction: Alice was Lewis Carroll, an Englishman, not J. M. Barrie.

[Speakeasy]

Quick correction ...

How embarrassinger and embarrassinger!

[drmweaver2]

It appears Barrie used the same phrase in both Peter Pan and The Minister.
From what I can find, it appears to be a reference dating back to at least the 1600s in Scotland.

"Your Antinomians, Familists, Socinians, Antiscripturists, the Gideons, and Saviours of the land of whom the maids in their dance sing, they have slain their thousands, and their ten thousands, when both Kingdoms were in the post way toward Babylon were as men buried, and in the congregation of the dead, and as still as salt, we heard nothing then, not one sound, nor the least still whisper of the wars of the Lamb, of a two edged sword in the hands of the Saints."
A brotherly and free Epistle to the patrons and friends of pretended Liberty of Conscience.
By SAMUEL RUTHERFURD Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland
https://www.truecovenanter.com/anti_toleration/rutherfurd_epistle_against_pretendedlibertyofconscience.html (Footnotes all reference things between 1640 and 1646)

Mr. Rutherford was apparently a member of the Covenanted Reformed Presbyterian Church
"..the Covenanter Church is not a new organization, nor a distinct independent religious body. It is a part of the proper ‘Holy Catholic Church’ adhering to the Protestant Reformation. And it is a part of the Reformed Church adhering to the Covenants which formerly united Scottish Presbyterians and other Reformed Christians in the 1600s." https://www.truecovenanter.com/editor/about_the_covenanter_church.html

Edited to add: first sentence

[Jamee Zhao]

It appears Barrie used the same phrase in both Peter Pan and The Minister.
From what I can find, it appears to be a reference dating back to at least the 1600s in Scotland.

"Your Antinomians, Familists, Socinians, Antiscripturists, the Gideons, and Saviours of the land of whom the maids in their dance sing, they have slain their thousands, and their ten thousands, when both Kingdoms were in the post way toward Babylon were as men buried, and in the congregation of the dead, and as still as salt, we heard nothing then, not one sound, nor the least still whisper of the wars of the Lamb, of a two edged sword in the hands of the Saints."
A brotherly and free Epistle to the patrons and friends of pretended Liberty of Conscience.
By SAMUEL RUTHERFURD Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland
https://www.truecovenanter.com/anti_toleration/rutherfurd_epistle_against_pretendedlibertyofconscience.html (Footnotes all reference things between 1640 and 1646)

Mr. Rutherford was apparently a member of the Covenanted Reformed Presbyterian Church
"..the Covenanter Church is not a new organization, nor a distinct independent religious body. It is a part of the proper ‘Holy Catholic Church’ adhering to the Protestant Reformation. And it is a part of the Reformed Church adhering to the Covenants which formerly united Scottish Presbyterians and other Reformed Christians in the 1600s." https://www.truecovenanter.com/editor/about_the_covenanter_church.html

Edited to add: first sentence

Thank you for providing such a solid reference. Frankly speaking, the passage above is too hard for me to follow, for I know little about the Presbyterian Church and history of Scotland, but at least it does prove the expression has a religious origin.