Attic salt - Аттическая соль
Attica was a district of ancient Greece, with the
administrative centre at Athens. It influenced the lives
and thoughts of countless people for more than 2,000
years, so great was the learning and the taste of those
who lived there in the remote past. The adjective Attic,
besides ‘pertaining to Attica’, has come to denote, metaphorically, ‘anything characterized by simplicity,
purity and refinement’.
The phrase Attic salt denotes delicate, sharp wit,
resembling the refined and elegant style of the Athenian
writers. Salt, both in Latin and Greek, was a polysemantic word, one of its m eanings being ‘wit’, or ‘sparkling thought’, and hence Attic salt means wit as pointed and delicately expressed as that which was characteristic of the Athenians.
В каком значении употребляется в литературной
речи выражение аттическая соль?
The phrase denotes delicate, sharp wit.
Каково происхождение слова аттический?
Attic means ‘pertaining to Attica’ a district of ancient Greece.
В какой части Греции находилась эта область?
It was the name of a little peninsula,
north-east of Corinth. Its administrative centre was Athens. .
А что означает в этом выражении слово соль?
In both Greek and Latin, salt was a synonym for wit.
Чем славились жители Аттики?
As Cicero says, “The Athenians were noted for their wit and elegant turns of
thought.”