By RICHARD LEDERER

My whole life I have been an unrepentant, self-confessed verbivore, and I can already sense the presence of thousands of wordaholic and verbivorous readers out there. Carnivores partake of flesh and meat; piscivores gobble fish; herbivores consume plants and vegetables; verbivores eat words (sometimes their own). My whole life I have feasted on words -- ogled their appetizing shapes, colors, textures; swished them around in my mouth; felt their juices running down my chin.

Now let us verbivores nibble on a spicy, meaty, juicy honey of a topic that we're sure to savor and relish. I'm talking about culinary metaphors that are packed like sardines and sandwiched into our everyday conversations.

For one example, take salt. The ancients knew that salt was essential to a good diet, and centuries before human-made refrigeration, it was the only chemical that could preserve meat. Thus, a portion of the wages paid to Roman soldiers was salt money, with which to buy salt (Latin, sal). This stipend came to be called a salarium, from which we acquire the word salary.

Although you should always take what I say with a grain of salt, I hope that you'll find the following quiz to be worth its salt. All the culinary answers appear in the next issue.

1. What's so humble about humble pie?

2. Why, exactly, is something defective or otherwise disappointing described as a lemon?

3. What does being crabby have to do with crabs?

4. What does the grapevine, through which we "heard it," have to do with war?

5. What is the cold shoulder that gets turned on us?

6. Centuries ago, captive gray geese were tied down and, six times a day, force fed a thick paste of sewed maize, buckwheat, and chestnut flour. This process enlarged the bird's liver, already a highly prized ingredient in goose-liver pie. By metaphoric comparison, a person who has had more than enough of food or anything else is said to be ...............

Test your word savvy against Richard -- and win a prize. The first person to e-mail SALON with the correct answer (or, if no correct answer is received, the closest answer) will receive a $25 gift certificate from Borders Books and Music.

We will let you know by e-mail if you are a winner. The correct answers will appear in next issue's VERBIVORE.

Answers to last issue's VERBIVORE: 1. Norway 2. Pakistan 3. Germany 4. Uruguay 5. Jamaica 6. Senegal 7. Haiti 8. Cuba/Sweden 9. Laos/Egypt 10. Hungary/Turkey/Greece. The winner was Bruce Merritt of Palo Alto, CA.