saltpeter

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   potassium nitrate, a white crystalline compound used in fertilizers, food preservation, and especially gunpowder

   The experimenter combined saltpeter with charcoal and sulfur to make gunpowder.

From Middle English salpetre, through Old French from Medieval Latin sal petrae, literally "salt of rock." Deposits of potassium nitrate were once scraped from rocks, walls, and soil, which explains the name.

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