Niter \Ni"ter\, Nitre \Ni"tre\, n. [F. nitre, L. nitrum native
soda, natron, Gr. ?; cf. Ar. nit[=u]n, natr[=u]n natron. Cf.
Natron.]
1. (Chem.) A white crystalline semitransparent salt;
potassium nitrate; saltpeter. See Saltpeter.
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2. (Chem.) Native sodium carbonate; natron. [Obs.]
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For though thou wash thee with niter, and take thee
much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me.
--Jer. ii. 22.
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Cubic niter, a deliquescent salt, sodium nitrate, found as
a native incrustation, like niter, in Peru and Chile,
whence it is known also as Chile saltpeter.
Niter bush (Bot.), a genus (Nitraria) of thorny shrubs
bearing edible berries, and growing in the saline plains
of Asia and Northern Africa.
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Nitre
(Prov. 25:20; R.V. marg., "soda"), properly "natron," a
substance so called because, rising from the bottom of the Lake
Natron in Egypt, it becomes dry and hard in the sun, and is the
soda which effervesces when vinegar is poured on it. It is a
carbonate of soda, not saltpetre, which the word generally
denotes (Jer. 2:22; R.V. "lye").
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