saltpetre

noun
/ˈsɔːltpiːtə(ɹ)/

Etymology

From Middle English saltpetre, alteration of Old French salpetre, from Medieval Latin sāl petrae (“salt of the rock”), named so being found as an incrustation. Alteration of the first element is from folk-etymological association with salt (which is, nevertheless, cognate to Latin sāl).

  1. derived from sāl petrae — “salt of the rock
  2. derived from salpetre
  3. inherited from saltpetre

Definitions

  1. Potassium nitrate.

  2. Sodium nitrate.

  3. To treat with saltpetre.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for saltpetre. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA