above the salt

引き続き、塩（salt）にまつわる表現を取り上げます。

昨日は塩（salt）とお給料（salary）の関連をお話ししましたが、塩は昔から貴重なものでした。人間が生きていくのに欠かせないというのが理由ですが、ここから、"above the salt"という表現は、その塩（salt）以上に・・・ということで、最上級の意味合いがあります。

研究社の大英和によりますと、昔、食卓の真ん中に大きな塩入れを置き、その上手は身分の高い人が座ると決まっていたということです。上座、上席、ということですね
。

用例をコーパスで当たってみました。


Economic and technological prowess are becoming more significant measures of national strength and importance than the traditional measures of military power. In most of the world, though unfortunately not all of it, economic competition is replacing military competition -- a shift that does not necessarily make the world any less Darwinian or more benign, since economic competition is often-waged just as fiercely as military competition ever was.

The place of economics at the intelligence table must now be moved well above the salt. Economic developments, furthermore, can no longer be considered in relative isolation; the web of economic, military and other factors directly affecting America's national interests and security is becoming seamless.
(Foreign Affairs, 1990.)


以下に引用したのは最近のニュース記事からのものです。


Andy Rubin is one of the stalwarts of the technology industry who created and developed the operating system that now runs on more than 2 billion smartphones, cars, televisions and watches; Android. After he left Google in 2014, having a career that was nothing but above the salt, his hunger for success wasn’t satiated yet. And thus Playground Global was found, the company that helped Andy launch his first smartphone, the Essential.
(Prasham Parikh. THE ESSENTIAL PHONE BY THE CREATOR OF ANDROID. EOTO. May 30, 2017.)