(With) a grain of salt is a literal translation of a _Latin_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin) phrase, (cum) grano salis. A pinch of salt may also be used. In common _parlance_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parlance) , if something is to be taken with a grain of _salt_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt) , it means that a measure of healthy _scepticism_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skepticism) should be applied regarding a claim; that it should not be blindly accepted and believed without any doubt or reservation. According to the _Oxford English Dictionary_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary) 'to take 'it' with a grain of salt' means 'to accept a thing less than fully'. It dates this usage back to _1647_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1647) The phrase comes from _Pliny the Elder_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder) 's _Naturalis Historia_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny's_Natural_History) , regarding the discovery of recipe for an _antidote_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidote) to a _poison_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison) . In the antidote, one of the ingredients was a grain of salt. Threats involving the poison were thus to be taken "with a grain of salt" and therefore less seriously. In reality salt is not an antidote to poison. Retrieved from "_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_of_salt_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_of_salt) "