What is "salt"

Salt \Salt\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Salted; p. pr. & vb. n. Salting.]

1. To sprinkle, impregnate, or season with salt; to preserve with salt or in brine; to supply with salt; as, to salt fish, beef, or pork; to salt cattle.

2. To fill with salt between the timbers and planks, as a ship, for the preservation of the timber.

   To salt a mine, to artfully deposit minerals in a mine in order to deceive purchasers regarding its value. [Cant]

   To salt away, To salt down, to prepare with, or pack in, salt for preserving, as meat, eggs, etc.; hence, colloquially, to save, lay up, or invest sagely, as money.

Salt \Salt\, n. [L. saltus, fr. salire to leap.] The act of leaping or jumping; a leap. [Obs.]
--B. Jonson.

Salt \Salt\, a. [Compar. Salter; superl. Saltest.] [AS. sealt, salt. See Salt, n.]

1. Of or relating to salt; abounding in, or containing, salt; prepared or preserved with, or tasting of, salt; salted; as, salt beef; salt water. ``Salt tears.''
   --Chaucer.

2. Overflowed with, or growing in, salt water; as, a salt marsh; salt grass.

3. Fig.: Bitter; sharp; pungent.

   I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me.
   --Shak.

4. Fig.: Salacious; lecherous; lustful. --Shak. Salt acid (Chem.), hydrochloric acid. Salt block, an apparatus for evaporating brine; a salt factory. --Knight. Salt bottom, a flat piece of ground covered with saline efflorescences. [Western U.S.] --Bartlett. Salt cake (Chem.), the white caked mass, consisting of sodium sulphate, which is obtained as the product of the first stage in the manufacture of soda, according to Leblanc's process. Salt fish.

   1. Salted fish, especially cod, haddock, and similar fishes that have been salted and dried for food.

   2. A marine fish. Salt garden, an arrangement for the natural evaporation of sea water for the production of salt, employing large shallow basins excavated near the seashore. Salt gauge, an instrument used to test the strength of brine; a salimeter. Salt horse, salted beef. [Slang] Salt junk, hard salt beef for use at sea. [Slang] Salt lick. See Lick, n. Salt marsh, grass land subject to the overflow of salt water. Salt-marsh caterpillar (Zo["o]l.), an American bombycid moth ( Spilosoma acr[ae]a which is very destructive to the salt-marsh grasses and to other crops. Called also woolly bear. See Illust. under Moth, Pupa, and Woolly bear, under Woolly. Salt-marsh fleabane (Bot.), a strong-scented composite herb ( Pluchea camphorata) with rayless purplish heads, growing in salt marshes. Salt-marsh hen (Zo["o]l.), the clapper rail. See under Rail. Salt-marsh terrapin (Zo["o]l.), the diamond-back. Salt mine, a mine where rock salt is obtained. Salt pan.

      1. A large pan used for making salt by evaporation; also, a shallow basin in the ground where salt water is evaporated by the heat of the sun.

      2. pl. Salt works.

         Salt pit, a pit where salt is obtained or made.

         Salt rising, a kind of yeast in which common salt is a principal ingredient. [U.S.]

         Salt raker, one who collects salt in natural salt ponds, or inclosures from the sea.

         Salt sedative (Chem.), boracic acid. [Obs.]

         Salt spring, a spring of salt water.

         Salt tree (Bot.), a small leguminous tree ( Halimodendron argenteum) growing in the salt plains of the Caspian region and in Siberia.

         Salt water, water impregnated with salt, as that of the ocean and of certain seas and lakes; sometimes, also, tears.

         Mine eyes are full of tears, I can not see; And yet salt water blinds them not so much But they can see a sort of traitors here.
         --Shak.

         Salt-water sailor, an ocean mariner.

         Salt-water tailor. (Zo["o]l.) See Bluefish.

Salt \Salt\, n. [AS. sealt; akin to OS. & OFries. salt, D. zout, G. salz, Icel., Sw., & Dan. salt, L. sal, Gr. ?, Russ. sole, Ir. & Gael. salann, W. halen, of unknown origin. Cf. Sal, Salad, Salary, Saline, Sauce, Sausage.]

1. The chloride of sodium, a substance used for seasoning food, for the preservation of meat, etc. It is found native in the earth, and is also produced, by evaporation and crystallization, from sea water and other water impregnated with saline particles.

2. Hence, flavor; taste; savor; smack; seasoning.

   Though we are justices and doctors and churchmen . . . we have some salt of our youth in us.
   --Shak.

3. Hence, also, piquancy; wit; sense; as, Attic salt.

4. A dish for salt at table; a saltcellar.

   I out and bought some things; among others, a dozen of silver salts.
   --Pepys.

5. A sailor; -- usually qualified by old. [Colloq.]

   Around the door are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts.
   --Hawthorne.

6. (Chem.) The neutral compound formed by the union of an acid and a base; thus, sulphuric acid and iron form the salt sulphate of iron or green vitriol.

   Note: Except in case of ammonium salts, accurately speaking, it is the acid radical which unites with the base or basic radical, with the elimination of hydrogen, of water, or of analogous compounds as side products. In the case of diacid and triacid bases, and of dibasic and tribasic acids, the mutual neutralization may vary in degree, producing respectively basic, neutral, or acid salts. See Phrases below.

7. Fig.: That which preserves from corruption or error; that which purifies; a corrective; an antiseptic; also, an allowance or deduction; as, his statements must be taken with a grain of salt.

   Ye are the salt of the earth.
   --Matt. v. 13.

8. pl. Any mineral salt used as an aperient or cathartic, especially Epsom salts, Rochelle salt, or Glauber's salt.

9. pl. Marshes flooded by the tide. [Prov. Eng.] Above the salt, Below the salt, phrases which have survived the old custom, in the houses of people of rank, of placing a large saltcellar near the middle of a long table, the places above which were assigned to the guests of distinction, and those below to dependents, inferiors, and poor relations. See Saltfoot. His fashion is not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in clothes. He never drinks below the salt. --B. Jonson. Acid salt (Chem.)

   1. A salt derived from an acid which has several replaceable hydrogen atoms which are only partially exchanged for metallic atoms or basic radicals; as, acid potassium sulphate is an acid salt.

   2. A salt, whatever its constitution, which merely gives an acid reaction; thus, copper sulphate, which is composed of a strong acid united with a weak base, is an acid salt in this sense, though theoretically it is a neutral salt. Alkaline salt (Chem.), a salt which gives an alkaline reaction, as sodium carbonate. Amphid salt (Old Chem.), a salt of the oxy type, formerly regarded as composed of two oxides, an acid and a basic oxide. [Obsolescent] Basic salt (Chem.)

      1. A salt which contains more of the basic constituent than is required to neutralize the acid.

      2. An alkaline salt. Binary salt (Chem.), a salt of the oxy type conveniently regarded as composed of two ingredients (analogously to a haloid salt), viz., a metal and an acid radical. Double salt (Chem.), a salt regarded as formed by the union of two distinct salts, as common alum, potassium aluminium sulphate. See under Double. Epsom salts. See in the Vocabulary. Essential salt (Old Chem.), a salt obtained by crystallizing plant juices. Ethereal salt. (Chem.) See under Ethereal. Glauber's salt or Glauber's salts. See in Vocabulary. Haloid salt (Chem.), a simple salt of a halogen acid, as sodium chloride. Microcosmic salt. (Chem.). See under Microcosmic. Neutral salt. (Chem.)

         1. A salt in which the acid and base (in theory) neutralize each other.

         2. A salt which gives a neutral reaction. Oxy salt (Chem.), a salt derived from an oxygen acid. Per salt (Old Chem.), a salt supposed to be derived from a peroxide base or analogous compound. [Obs.] Permanent salt, a salt which undergoes no change on exposure to the air. Proto salt (Chem.), a salt derived from a protoxide base or analogous compound. Rochelle salt. See under Rochelle. Salt of amber (Old Chem.), succinic acid. Salt of colcothar (Old Chem.), green vitriol, or sulphate of iron. Salt of hartshorn. (Old Chem.)

            1. Sal ammoniac, or ammonium chloride.

            2. Ammonium carbonate. Cf. Spirit of hartshorn, under Hartshorn.

               Salt of lemons. (Chem.) See Salt of sorrel, below.

               Salt of Saturn (Old Chem.), sugar of lead; lead acetate; -- the alchemical name of lead being Saturn.

               Salt of Seignette. Same as Rochelle salt.

               Salt of soda (Old Chem.), sodium carbonate.

               Salt of sorrel (Old Chem.), acid potassium oxalate, or potassium quadroxalate, used as a solvent for ink stains; -- so called because found in the sorrel, or Oxalis. Also sometimes inaccurately called salt of lemon.

               Salt of tartar (Old Chem.), potassium carbonate; -- so called because formerly made by heating cream of tartar, or potassium tartrate. [Obs.]

               Salt of Venus (Old Chem.), blue vitriol; copper sulphate; -- the alchemical name of copper being Venus.

               Salt of wisdom. See Alembroth.

               Sedative salt (Old Med. Chem.), boric acid.

               Sesqui salt (Chem.), a salt derived from a sesquioxide base or analogous compound.

               Spirit of salt. (Chem.) See under Spirit.

               Sulpho salt (Chem.), a salt analogous to an oxy salt, but containing sulphur in place of oxygen.

Salt \Salt\, v. i. To deposit salt as a saline solution; as, the brine begins to salt.

Cold War U.S.-U.S.S.R. nuclear weapons negotiations, 1968, acronym for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (which would make SALT talks redundant, but the last element sometimes also is understood as treaty).

Old English sealtan, from Proto-Germanic *salto- (see salt (n.)), and in part from the noun. Related: Salted; salting.

Old English sealt "salt" (n.; also as an adjective, "salty, briny"), from Proto-Germanic *saltom (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old Frisian, Gothic salt, Dutch zout, German Salz), from PIE *sal- "salt" (cognates: Greek hals "salt, sea," Latin sal, Old Church Slavonic soli, Old Irish salann, Welsh halen "salt").\n

\nModern chemistry sense is from 1790. Meaning "experienced sailor" is first attested 1840, in reference to the salinity of the sea. Salt was long regarded as having power to repel spiritual and magical evil. Many metaphoric uses reflect that this was once a rare and important resource, such as worth one's salt (1830), salt of the earth (Old English, after Matt. v:13). Belief that spilling salt brings bad luck is attested from 16c. To be above (or below) the salt (1590s) refers to customs of seating at a long table according to rank or honor, and placing a large salt-cellar in the middle of the dining table.\n

\nSalt-lick first recorded 1751; salt-marsh is Old English sealtne mersc; salt-shaker is from 1882. Salt-and-pepper "of dark and light color" first recorded 1915. To take something with a grain of salt is from 1640s, from Modern Latin cum grano salis.

1. salty; salted. n. 1 A common substance, chemically consisting mainly of sodium chloride (NaCl), used extensively as a condiment and preservative. 2 (context chemistry English) One of the compounds formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, where a positive ion replaces a hydrogen of the acid. 3 (context uncommon English) A salt marsh, a saline marsh at the shore of a sea. 4 (context slang English) A sailor (qualifier: also '''''old salt'''''). 5 (context cryptography English) randomly chosen bytes added to a plaintext message prior to encrypting it, in order to render brute force decryption more difficult. 6 A person who seeks employment at a company in order to (once employed by it) help unionize it. 7 (context obsolete English) flavour; taste; seasoning 8 (context obsolete English) piquancy; wit; sense 9 (context obsolete English) A dish for salt at table; a salt cellar. 10 (context figurative English) That which preserves from corruption or error, or purifies; a corrective; an antiseptic; also, an allowance or deduction. v

2. 1 (context transitive English) To add salt to. 2 (context intransitive English) To deposit salt as a saline solution. 3 (context mining English) To blast gold into (qualifier: as a portion of a mine) in order to cause to appear to be a productive seam. 4 (context cryptography English) To add filler bytes before encrypting, in order to make brute-force decryption more resource-intensive. 5 To include colorful language in. 6 To insert or inject something into an object to give it properties it would not naturally have. 7 (context archaeology English) To add bogus evidence to an archeological site. 8 To fill with salt between the timbers and planks, as a ship, for the preservation of the timber.

1. adj. containing or filled with salt; "salt water" [ant: fresh]

2. of speech that is painful or bitter; "salt scorn"- Shakespeare; "a salt apology"

3. one of the four basic taste sensations; like the taste of sea water [syn: salty]

1. n. a compound formed by replacing hydrogen in an acid by a metal (or a radical that acts like a metal)

2. white crystalline form of especially sodium chloride used to season and preserve food [syn: table salt, common salt]

3. negotiations between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics opened in 1969 in Helsinki designed to limit both countries' stock of nuclear weapons [syn: Strategic Arms Limitation Talks]

4. the taste experience when salt is taken into the mouth [syn: saltiness, salinity]

1. v. add salt to

2. sprinkle as if with salt; "the rebels had salted the fields with mines and traps"

3. add zest or liveliness to; "She salts her lectures with jokes"

4. preserve with salt; "people used to salt meats on ships"

thumb|upright=1.5|The salt copper(II) sulfate as the mineral chalcanthite. In chemistry, a salt is an ionic compound that results from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. Salts are composed of related numbers of cations (positively charged ions) and anions (negative ions) so that the product is electrically neutral (without a net charge). These component ions can be inorganic, such as chloride (Cl), or organic, such as acetate ; and can be monatomic, such as fluoride (F), or polyatomic, such as sulfate .

There are several varieties of salts. Salts that hydrolyze to produce hydroxide ions when dissolved in water are basic salts, whilst those that hydrolyze to produce hydronium ions in water are acidic salts. Neutral salts are those that are neither acid nor basic salts. Zwitterions contain an anionic centre and a cationic centre in the same molecule, but are not considered to be salts. Examples of zwitterions include amino acids, many metabolites, peptides, and proteins.

Usually, non-dissolved salts at standard temperature and pressure are solid, but there are exceptions (see molten salts and ionic liquids).

Molten salts and solutions containing dissolved salts (e.g., sodium chloride in water) are called electrolytes, as they are able to conduct electricity. As observed in the cytoplasm of cells, in blood, urine, plant saps and mineral waters, mixtures of many different ions in solution usually do not form defined salts after evaporation of the water. Therefore, their salt content is given for the respective ions.

Salt is a dietary mineral, used for flavoring and preservation.

Salt may also refer to:

Salt is the first album by singer and composer Lizz Wright, released in 2003 (see 2003 in music). It reached number two on the Billboard Top Contemporary Jazz chart.

Salt is a novel by British science fiction author Adam Roberts.

Salt is a 12" by Venetian Snares. It is his first overseas release, on the Hecate-run Zhark International record label. Salt was repressed in 2003 with different artwork.

Following the departure of percussionist Doni Schroader in 2005, Forget Cassettes' Beth Cameron recruited Nashville drummer Aaron Ford and Apollo Up!'s Jay Leo Phillips on bass, guitar, keys, and backing vocals. The record was released in 2006 on Theory 8 Records, and eventually given a European release on March 5, 2007, courtesy of One Little Indian Records. The European release featured a bonus track entitled "Sleeper".

SALT was founded in Istanbul in April 2011 as a not-for-profit cultural institution. It conducts interdisciplinary research projects, and hosts public programs such as exhibitions, talks, film screenings, lectures, performances, and workshops. SALT is a member of L’Internationale—a confederation of European museums which aims towards a shared use of collections and archives. Far from championing a hierarchical and centralized internationalism, L’Internationale consists of a constellation of cultural agents that are locally rooted and globally connected. It proposes a space for art within a non-hierarchical and decentralised internationalism, based on the values of difference and horizontal exchange.

In cryptography, a salt is random data that is used as an additional input to a one-way function that " hashes" a password or passphrase. Salts are closely related to the concept of nonce. The primary function of salts is to defend against dictionary attacks versus a list of password hashes and against pre-computed rainbow table attacks.

A new salt is randomly generated for each password. In a typical setting, the salt and the password are concatenated and processed with a cryptographic hash function, and the resulting output (but not the original password) is stored with the salt in a database. Hashing allows for later authentication while protecting the plaintext password in the event that the authentication data store is compromised.

Cryptographic salts are broadly used in many modern computer systems, from Unix system credentials to Internet security.

Common salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in its natural form as a crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantities in seawater, where it is the main mineral constituent. The open ocean has about of solids per litre, a salinity of 3.5%.

Salt is essential for human life, and saltiness is one of the basic human tastes. The tissues of animals contain larger quantities of salt than do plant tissues. Salt is one of the oldest and most ubiquitous food seasonings, and salting is an important method of food preservation.

Some of the earliest evidence of salt processing dates to around 8,000 years ago, when people living in an area in what is now known as the country of Romania were boiling spring water to extract the salts; a salt-works in China dates to approximately the same period. Salt was prized by the ancient Hebrews, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Hittites and the Egyptians. Salt became an important article of trade and was transported by boat across the Mediterranean Sea, along specially built salt roads, and across the Sahara in camel caravans. The scarcity and universal need for salt has led nations to go to war over salt and use it to raise tax revenues. Salt is also used in religious ceremonies and has other cultural significance.

Salt is processed from salt mines, or by the evaporation of seawater ( sea salt) or mineral-rich spring water in shallow pools. Its major industrial products are caustic soda and chlorine, and is used in many industrial processes including the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride, plastics, paper pulp and many other products. Of the annual global production of around two hundred million tonnes of salt, only about 6% is used for human consumption. Other uses include water conditioning processes, deicing highways, and agricultural use. Edible salt is sold in forms such as sea salt and table salt which usually contains an anti-caking agent and may be iodised to prevent iodine deficiency. As well as its use in cooking and at the table, salt is present in many processed foods.

Sodium is an essential nutrient for human health via its role as an electrolyte and osmotic solute. Excessive salt consumption can increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as hypertension, in children and adults. Such health effects of salt have long been studied. Accordingly, numerous world health associations and experts in developed countries recommend reducing consumption of popular salty foods. The World Health Organization recommends that adults should consume less than 2,000 mg of sodium, equivalent to 5 grams of salt per day.

SaltStack platform or Salt is a Python-based open-source configuration management software and remote execution engine. Supporting the " Infrastructure as Code" approach to deployment and cloud management, it competes primarily with Puppet, Chef, and Ansible.

Salt is the fifth full-length album by Danish band Wuthering Heights. It has been received with great reviews from the fans and the press. The album takes themes that involve the sea, and other myths and tales from the sailor's culture.

As usual in Wuthering Height's albums, the mixture between genres like Power, progressive and folk metal can be noticed clearly. In this specific album it can be noticed a heavier but still melodic sound

Salting is a labor union tactic involving the act of getting a job at a specific workplace with the intent of organizing a union. A person so employed is called a "salt".

The tactic is often discussed in the United States because under US law, unions may be prohibited from talking with workers in the workplace and salting is one of the few legal strategies that allow union organizers to talk with workers. Both the Knights of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World employed salts. The IWW continues to use salts, especially in their Starbucks Workers Campaign.

In Toering Elec. Co., 351 N.L.R.B. No. 18 (Sept. 29, 2007), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concluded that workers in the United States can be fired if they are believed to not be "genuinely interested" in obtaining the job. This category includes salting.

Salt is a 2010 American action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Daniel Olbrychski, August Diehl and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, who is accused of being a Russian sleeper agent and goes on the run to try to clear her name.

Originally written with a male protagonist, with Tom Cruise initially secured for the lead, the script was ultimately rewritten by Brian Helgeland for Jolie. Filming took place on location in Washington, D.C., the New York City area, and Albany, New York, between March and June 2009, with reshoots in January 2010. Action scenes were primarily performed with practical stunts, computer-generated imagery being used mostly for creating digital environments.

The film had a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 22 and was released in North America on July 23, 2010, and in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2010. Salt grossed $294 million at the worldwide box office and received generally positive reviews, with praise for the action scenes and Jolie's performance, but drawing criticism on the writing, with reviewers finding the plot implausible and convoluted. The DVD and Blu-ray Disc were released December 21, 2010, and featured two alternate cuts providing different endings for the film.

Salt was a Swedish grunge alternative rock band, who had one hit single from the album Auscultate, "Bluster", in the United States in 1996. "So" was released as a second single from Auscultate but did not achieve the same level of success.

Salt formed in 1992 after its members had played together informally, with others, at an art school. The group signed with Island Records in 1995, releasing the album Auscultate the following year; this album reached No. 33 on the U.S. Billboard Heatseekers chart. The album's lead single, "Bluster", was a rock radio hit in America, reaching No. 21 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The group released a follow-up in 1997.

SALT is a Swedish barbershop quartet that won the Sweet Adelines International Quartet Championship for 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada in October 2006. Sweet Adelines, "one of the world's largest singing organizations for women", has members over five continents who belong to more than 1200 quartets. The quartet placed third at the international contest in 2003 (Phoenix) and 2004 (Indianapolis), and earned a second-place finish in 2005's contest in Detroit. SALT's November 2008 feature performance in Anaheim, California, was noted by the Vasa Order of America. At the time of winning the Sweet Adelines competition, SALT included tenor Anna Öhman, also a music teacher; lead Annika Andersson, a manager at a social security agency; baritone Anna-Stina Gerdin, an elementary school teacher; and bass Susanna Berndts, a speech therapist. Karin Sjöblom later replaced Gerdin as baritone. The quartet announced its retirement on Facebook in June 2012 "after singing together for 13 years".

Salt is an Australian documentary short film by director Michael Angus and photographer Murray Fredericks. It debuted at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2009.

The film records Fredericks's annual solo trips to the salt flats of Lake Eyre in South Australia. He spends five weeks each year camping in the middle of the lake to contemplate and to take photographs of the peculiar landscape for his photographic series, also called Salt. The film intersperses time-lapse photography with still images from Fredericks's camera and footage from a video diary he records throughout the trip.

The film has won jury prizes at several film festivals, and was nominated for two prizes at the 51st Australian Film Institute Awards for "Best Cinematography in a Documentary" and "Best Documentary under one hour". The film won the award of Best Cinematography at the 2010 Byron Bay International Film Festival.It was first broadcast in the United States on the PBS independent film series P.O.V. in 2010.