Attic salt

Definitions

Pointed and delicate wit.

idiomatic, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“His [Lucan's] wit, ſays Ablancourt, was full of urbanity, that Attic ſalt which the French call⟳ fine raillery; not obſcene, not groſs, not rude, but facetious, well-mannered, and well-bred.”

“Koznyshev, who knew better than anyone how at the end⟳ of a most abstract and serious dispute unexpectedly to administer a grain of Attic salt and thereby to change⟳ his interlocutor's frame of mind⟳, did so now.”

“But Attic salt is not the sole preservative against the decay that threatens all human writings; nor can mere eloquence rekindle the ashes of a dead controversy.”

CEFR level