ˈaphronitre ? Obs.
[ad. L. aphronitrum, a. Gr. ἀϕρόνιτρον, better ἀϕρὸς νίτρου, spuma nitri.]
‘Foam of nitre’; a name formerly applied to the sulphur salts of various alkalis and earths.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. lxix. (1495) 575 The fome of Nitrum hyghte Affronitum. 1601 Holland Pliny (1634) II. 421 The ægyptian Aphro-nitre or Salt-petre. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Some modern naturalists rather take the antient Aphronitre to have been a native salt-petre. |