Spilling salt: Origin, Meaning and When It Actually Started

Q: How old is this superstition?

First recorded: Antiquity; the over-the-shoulder throw from the Renaissance. Salt preserved food and was traded as currency — Roman soldiers were partly paid in it, which is where "salary" comes from. Spilling it wasted something valuable. The throw over the left shoulder is later, aimed at the devil said to wait there.

When it actually starts

How old is this one

First recorded Antiquity; the over-the-shoulder throw from the Renaissance

That makes it about 2,526 years old

Rank by age 2 oldest of 40 dated here

Category Household

Searched 560 a month

Salt preserved food and was traded as currency — Roman soldiers were partly paid in it, which is where "salary" comes from. Spilling it wasted something valuable. The throw over the left shoulder is later, aimed at the devil said to wait there.

What people say

Bad luck unless a pinch is thrown over the left shoulder.

What is going on

Salt is now among the cheapest substances in a kitchen, so the practical basis has entirely evaporated while the gesture survived.

Where it applies. Europe, the Americas, and wherever the Last Supper painting is known — Leonardo shows spilled salt in front of Judas.

Other household superstitions

Breaking a mirror 1,990/mo Walking under a ladder 1,210/mo Food superstitions 700/mo House superstitions 460/mo Broom superstitions 110/mo

Recorded around the same time

Spilling salt is the 2nd oldest of the 40 dated superstitions here. Of those, 6 are younger than a century and 5 predate the common era.

The evil eye 3000 BC House superstitions 500 BC Death omens 500 BC Sailing superstitions 500 BC

First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →