Where does “salpêtre” come from?

salpêtre (French) comes from Medieval Latin sal petrae, from Latin sāl, from Proto-Italic sāls, from Proto-Indo-European *sḗh₂l — salt.

salpêtre (French): saltpetre; first-person singular present...

Definitions

  1. saltpetre; first-person singular present...

Ancestry of “salpêtre”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Medieval Latinsal petraesalt of the rock
2Latinsālsalt
3Proto-Italicsālssalt
4Proto-Indo-European*sḗh₂lsalt
Every word from Proto-Indo-European *sḗh₂l →Every word from Proto-Italic sāls →Every word from Latin sāl →