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Potassium nitrate
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==Etymology== Nitre, or potassium nitrate, because of its early and global use and production, has many names. As for nitrate, Egyptian and Hebrew words for it had the consonants n-t-r, indicating likely [[cognate|cognation]] in the Greek ''nitron'', which was Latinised to ''nitrum'' or ''nitrium''. Thence Old French had ''niter'' and Middle English ''nitre''. By the 15th century, Europeans referred to it as ''saltpetre'',<ref>{{cite book|last1=Spencer|first1=Dan|title=Saltpeter:The Mother of Gunpowder|date=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=9780199695751|pages=256}}</ref> specifically Indian saltpetre (Chilean saltpetre is sodium nitrate<ref name="brit1">{{cite news |url=https://www.britannica.com/science/saltpeter |title=Saltpetre | Definition, Uses, & Facts | Britannica |date=3 May 2024}}</ref>) and later as ''nitrate of potash,'' as the chemistry of the compound was more fully understood. The Arabs called it "Chinese snow" ({{langx|ar|ثلج الصين|thalj al-ṣīn}}) as well as ''bārūd'' ({{lang|ar|بارود}}), a term of uncertain origin that later came to mean [[gunpowder]]. It was called "Chinese salt" by the Iranians/Persians<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Watson|title=Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CVNoJydnGAoC&pg=PA304|year=2006|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-093564-1|page=304|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017152857/https://books.google.com/books?id=CVNoJydnGAoC&pg=PA304|archive-date=2015-10-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1h9zzSH-NmwC&pg=PA365 |title=The age of wars of religion, 1000–1650: an encyclopedia of global warfare and civilization |author=Cathal J. Nolan |access-date=2011-11-28 |volume=1 of Greenwood encyclopedias of modern world wars |year=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-33733-8 |page=365 |quote=In either case, there is linguistic evidence of Chinese origins of the technology: in Damascus, Arabs called the saltpeter used in making gunpowder "Chinese snow," while in Iran it was called "Chinese salt." |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101045832/http://books.google.com/books?id=1h9zzSH-NmwC&pg=PA365 |archive-date=2014-01-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aG0gAAAAMAAJ |title=English artillery, 1326–1716: being the history of artillery in this country prior to the formation of the Royal Regiment of Artillery |author=Oliver Frederick Gillilan Hogg |year=1963|publisher=Royal Artillery Institution |page=42 |quote=The Chinese were certainly acquainted with saltpetre, the essential ingredient of gunpowder. They called it Chinese Snow and employed it early in the Christian era in the manufacture of fireworks and rockets.}}</ref> or "salt from Chinese salt marshes" ({{langx|fa|نمک شوره چينی}} ''{{Transliteration|fa|DIN|namak shūra chīnī}}'').<ref name="Partington" />{{rp|335}}<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xrNDwP0pS8sC&q=namak+shura&pg=PA194 |title=Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 4, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts |volume=5|issue=Issue 4 of Science and Civilisation in China|first1=Joseph |last1=Needham |first2= Ping-Yu |last2= Yu |editor-first=Joseph|editor-last=Needham|others=Contributors Joseph Needham, Lu Gwei-Djen, Nathan Sivin|access-date=2014-11-21 |edition=illustrated, reprint |year=1980 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521085731 |page=194}}</ref> The [[Tiangong Kaiwu]], published in the 17th century by members of the [[Qing dynasty]], detailed the production of gunpowder and other useful products from nature.
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