Anybody worth their weight in salt

This beauty was uttered on NPR’s All Things Considered yesterday.  The discussion centered around sexual harassment, and what Human Resources divisions should do about it.  The speaker said, “Anybody worth their weight in salt would take allegations of sexual harassment seriously”.  This is a mashup of “worth one’s weight in gold” (very valuable, useful, or important) and “worth one’s salt” (deserving respect, especially because you do your job well).  This malaphor is a great one as the two expressions are very similar in sound and in meaning.  The word “weight” is the only distinguishing factor.  Regarding the salt idiom, it is believed that it refers to the fact that in Roman times soldiers were given an allowance of salt as part of their pay. The Latin word salarium (= the money given to Roman soldiers to buy salt) is the origin of the word ‘salary’.   A big thanks to loyal malaphor follower Paul Nance for hearing this one and sharing it.