Earth & SkyGreek → English
Natron
/ˈneɪtrɒn/noun
A natural mixture of sodium carbonate and bicarbonate deposited by dried lakes.
The Greek roots
νίτρον
nítron
soda, natural salt
Literally: “soda”
Follow a root:νίτρον3 words
The story of the word
Egyptian embalmers packed bodies in natron from the Wadi Natrun lakes to dry them out, and the Greeks borrowed both the substance and its Egyptian name as νίτρον. Arabic naṭrūn passed it on to Spanish and French, and Berzelius' Latin natrium is the reason sodium's symbol is Na. The same Greek word took a separate path into English as nitre and ended up meaning saltpetre, a completely different chemical.
- How it travelled
- Egyptian → Ancient Greek → Arabic → Spanish → French → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
nitrenitrogennatrium
In a sentence
Seventy days in natron left the body dry enough to wrap.