What is salt?

Salt

Salt, also known as table salt or rock salt (halite), is a crystalline mineral that is composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of ionic salts. It is absolutely essential for animal life, but can be harmful to animals and plants in excess. Salt is one of the oldest, most ubiquitous food seasonings and salting is an important method of food preservation. The taste of salt (saltiness) is one of the basic human tastes.

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Famous quotes containing the word salt:

    Unquiet wanderer
    Draw the Glasnevin coverlet anew
    About your head till the dust stops your ear,
    The time for you to taste of that salt breath
    And listen at the corners has not come;
    You had enough of sorrow before death—
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    Well, I know you haven’t had much experience writing and none at all in pictures. But I’ve heard about you. It all sounded like you’re just the man I wanted for a story about the Navy. I don’t want a story just about ships and planes. I want a story about the officers.... I want this story from a pen dipped in salt water not dry martinis. Do you know what I mean?
    Frank Fenton, William Wister Haines, co-scenarist, and John Ford. John Dodge (Ward Bond)

    Timon hath made his everlasting mansion
    Upon the beached verge of the salt flood,
    Who once a day with his embossed froth
    The turbulent surge shall cover; thither come,
    And let my grave-stone be your oracle.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)