below the salt
prep_phraseEtymology See above the salt.
1
Idiomatic Common, vulgar; of low standing.
- His fashion is not to take knowledge of him that is beneath him in clothes. He never drinks below the salt.1600 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC:
- Antonyms
- above the salt