Cum grano salis

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Cum grano salis ("with a grain of salt") is a Latin expression. The term is mostly used in German today to restrict a statement and to draw attention to the fact that what has been said may not be taken literally in every respect, but is in parts imprecise, exaggerated or sarcastic and is therefore only taken seriously with some qualifications should. The sentence is seldom used in such a way that a previous assertion does not have to be true in all respects, but contains "a grain" of truth.

Cum grano salis perhaps goes back to Pliny the Elder . He writes that General Pompey had found a remedy for snake venom that consisted of various ingredients "with the addition of a grain of salt" ("addito salis grano").

The expression “cum grano salis” can, however, also be understood differently: The Latin noun sal also means “wit” or “understanding, cleverness”, so that this reading implies that the reader or listener should not take the message literally, but rather “with a grain of understanding”, so not completely uncritically.

Application examples

  • “The formula“ incompatible hardness ”is of course to be understood cum grano salis ; In one case, the BGH assumed forfeiture of an additional claim for operating costs in the amount of 754.98 euros without explaining why the payment of this amount should represent a disproportionate hardship for the tenant (BGH WuM 2010, 36). "
  • “The present volume mainly contains administrative law, while volume 6/1 primarily deals with ancillary criminal law under white collar crime. Cum grano salis one can say: Volume 5 is basically the “Sartorius” secondary criminal law; Volume 6/1 the "Schönfelder" ancillary criminal law. "
  • "Although hyperthymic psychopaths and chronic manic or cyclothymes agree in numerous traits (see attached character table, which aims at a dialectical elaboration of the opposites, and whose individual points must of course be evaluated cum grano salis ), there is a decisive psychological difference between them."
  • “The essence of the game is symbolization; it satisfies the most varied of instincts and interests of acting and feeling through actions and objects which, with their real satisfactions, are only symbolic, i.e. H. have an established connection in the mind of the player; so all prize games and betting games are symbolizations of fighting and the car, etc. Therefore, the play instinct is to be understood as a special instinct only cum grano salis and at least as a second-order instinct. "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Duden Foreign Dictionary . 7th edition. Mannheim 2001.
  2. ↑ Naturalis historia 23,149
  3. ^ Georges: Comprehensive Latin-German concise dictionary. Volume 2, column 2455
  4. ↑ BeckOK Bamberger / Roth / Sutschet BGB § 242 Rn. 141 (as of May 1, 2010).
  5. ↑ MünchKommStGB / Lagodny, Volume 5, 1st edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-48829-0 , introduction Rn. 47.
  6. ↑ Hans Mollweide: Psychopathological differentiation of hyperthymic psychopathy from "chronic mania" or hypomania. Archive f. Psychiatrie , Vol. 181, p. 735 (1949).
  7. ^ Georg Simmel: The problems of the philosophy of history. ( online ), 1892.

Web links

Wiktionary: cum grano salis  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations