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Original · left

Salt (seasoning)

White crystalline sodium chloride mineral extracted from seawater or mines to season food.

First in use: ancient / pre-modern
Duplicate · right

Salt (cryptography)

Randomly generated bits appended to plaintext passwords before running them through a cryptographic hash to prevent rainbow table attacks.

First in use: the 1970s

Salt / Salt (seasoning) / Salt (cryptography)

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Duplicate share · 12 mo—
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Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Table salt vs. password hashing.

Which meaning of Salt is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Salt (seasoning) came first (ancient / pre-modern). Salt (cryptography) arrived in the 1970s. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Salt (seasoning)Salt (cryptography)
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · ancient / pre-modern

Salt (seasoning)

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Duplicate · the 1970s

Salt (cryptography)

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More duplicated terms

Cybersecurity