Toz = Salt???

Today, I received an email containing the following very interesting information:

طز (tuz) = كلمة تركية و معناها الملح!
و يروى أن الحكومة العثمانية كانت تفرض ضرائب على التجار على جميع البضائع باستثناء الملح.
فكان التجار العرب إذا مرّوا من عند المفتشين الأتراك يقولون لهم طـز، أي لا يوجد معنا إلا ملح (وإذ لاضرائب)

وشيئا فشيئا صار التجار يقولونها بهدف السخرية من المفتشين الأتراك...

وهكذا أصبحت هذه الكلمة تعني معنى سيئاً، بينما هي في الأصل ليست إلا بمعنى ملح !!!

The Ottoman government had imposed taxes on merchants on all goods except salt. Arab merchants would pass the inspectors and say “Tuz”, meaning they’re only carrying salt (no taxes to be paid). With time, this word became an ironic term used by these merchants to laugh at the Turkish inspectors... Thus, the meaning of this word became a bad word, while originally it only meant “salt”!

Being the "Touma" that I am sometimes and the "Googler" that I became, I had to confirm the truthfulness of the message, so I went to this site and got the proof ;)

So it's all about the salt and the Ottomans! Alileh?

I learned something new today. Je dormirai moins niaiseuse ce soir, as they say in Québec!