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“saltpeters”
1. Potassium nitrate; used especially as a component of gunpowder or as a food preservative: The term satlpeter derives from the concept that it appears as a salt-like encrustation on rocks.
2. Etymology: Saltpeter is a borrowing of Old Middle English salpetre [about A.D. 1300]; a borrowing of Old French, salpetre, a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin; also borrowed directly from Medieval Latin sal petrae, "salt of rock"; from Latin sal, "salt" + petrae, genitive form of Latin petra, "rock".
2. Etymology: Saltpeter is a borrowing of Old Middle English salpetre [about A.D. 1300]; a borrowing of Old French, salpetre, a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin; also borrowed directly from Medieval Latin sal petrae, "salt of rock"; from Latin sal, "salt" + petrae, genitive form of Latin petra, "rock".
This entry is located in the following units:
petro-, petr-, petri-, peter-
(page 5)
sal-, sali-
(page 3)