Less socially acceptable, socially inferior. Due to the difficulty of production in cold climates, salt was an expensive and exclusive commodity in medieval England. At that time, the nobility sat at the dining hall's “high table” whereas their servants and other commoners ate at lower trestle tables. Dishes or containers of salt were placed on the high table where only people of sufficient social rank had access to them. To be “below [or beneath] the salt” came to mean being less well regarded than other people.