Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic)Pointedanddelicatewit.1760, Thomas Flloyd, “LUCANUS (Marcus Annæus)”, inBibliotheca Biographica: A Synopsis of Universal Biography, Ancient and Modern. Containing a Circumstantial and Curious Detail of the Lives, Actions, Opinions, Writings, and Characters of the Most Celebrated Persons, of Both Sexes, of All Ranks, in All Countries, and in All Ages: Alphabetically Disposed.[...], volumes II (Dac–Nor), London: Printed for J. Hinton, inNewgate-Street; L. Davis and C. Reymers, oppositeGray's-Inn,Holborn;R[ichard] BaldwininPater-noster-Row; andJ[ohn] Walter, atCharing-Cross,→OCLC:His [Lucan's] wit, ſays Ablancourt, was full of urbanity, thatAttic ſaltwhich the French call fine raillery; not obſcene, not groſs, not rude, but facetious, well-mannered, and well-bred.1918,Leo Tolstoy;Louise and Aylmer Maude, translators, chapter IX, inAnna Karenina, a Novel(World's Classics;210–211), volume I,[Cambridge?]:Oxford University Press,→OCLC; republished London: Oxford University Press,Humphrey Milford, publisher to the University,1923,→OCLC, part IV,page435:Koznyshev, who knew better than anyone how at the end of a most abstract and serious dispute unexpectedly to administer a grain ofAttic saltand thereby to change his interlocutor's frame of mind, did so now.1941,H[ugh] F[raser] Stewart, “Pascal in Debate”, inThe Secret ofPascal, Cambridge: At theUniversity Press,→OCLC; 1st paperback edition, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press,2011,→ISBN,page 7:ButAttic saltis not the sole preservative against the decay that threatens all human writings; nor can mere eloquence rekindle the ashes of a dead controversy.
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