Ralph, This expression is a bit unpleasant, but a Wordwizard has to do what he has to do. In a nutshell it means ‘go fuck yourself.’ The full phrase is ‘go pound salt up your ass,’ which was a figure of speech for ‘go do something degrading to yourself.’
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Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang
POUND SALT UP YOUR ASS! exclamation [20th century] (U.S.) Euphemism for ‘go to hell’
[[that’s strange. I thought a euphemism was supposed to be a mild expression substituted for a harsh one. A hypothetical pounding of salt up a personal orifice sounds a lot worse to me than a make-believe trip to Hades – but perhaps times they are achangin’. On second thought this is probably an error and he meant to be referring to ‘pound salt’ sans ‘up your ass’]]
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Chapman’s Dictionary of American Slang
POUND SALT (or SAND) verb phrase by 1950s = go fuck oneself: <The Brooklyn strike force seemed unwilling to share any information. cf. ‘go pound salt’ They told Giacalone to pound sand—Vanity Fair>
GO POUND SALT (or SAND) verb phrase (Variation: up one’s ass may be added) by 1950s. To do something degrading and humiliating; = go fuck oneself: <. . . told Glazer and the feds to go pound sand, in legal terms, of course—Philadelphia
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Flexner’s Dictionary of American Slang
POUND SALT = pound salt up one’s ass: This euphemism [yes!] much more common than the full term
POUND SALT UP ONE’S ASS [taboo] 1) A strong term of rebuke. ‘Go pound salt up your ass’ = ‘shut up’ or ‘stick it up your ass.’ 2) An expression of anger at, contempt for, or rejection of a person.
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Ken G – August 25, 2003
Reply from Ken Greenwald (Fort Collins, CO - U.S.A.)