Nitre is a white salt used in gunpowder and curing. A deposit of nitre.
It is potassium nitrate, and it is what makes gunpowder burn without any outside air. Nitre was scraped off cellar walls and stable floors for centuries, since nobody could make it.
1nounnitreA white salt used in gunpowder and curing.
“The nitre was scraped from the walls of the stable every spring.”
nitre is a salt.
Also accepted in games: niter, saltpetre
egy
nṯrj — natron
Ancient Greek
νίτρον
Latin
nitrum — native soda, natron
Old French
nitre
Middle English
niter
English
niter
English, today
nitre
niter comes from Middle English niter, nitere, nitre, nytre, from Old French nitre, from Latin nitrum (“native soda, natron”), from Ancient Greek νίτρον. Ultimately from egy nṯrj (“natron”). a doublet of natron and trona. Compare also natrium, nitrogen. Compare reconstructed Proto-Germanic lauþrą (“nitre”) related to Modern English lye.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA