History
Niter as a term has been known since ancient times, although there is much historical confusion with natron (an impure sodium carbonate/bicarbonate), and not all of the ancient salts known by this name or similar names in the ancient world contained nitrate. The name is from the Greek νιτρων nitron from Ancient Egyptian netjeri, related to the Hebrew néter, for salt-derived ashes (their interrelationship is not clear).
The Hebrew néter may have been used as, or in conjunction with soap, as implied by Jeremiah 2:22, "For though thou wash me with nitre, and take thee much sope…" However, it is not certain which substance (or substances) the Biblical "neter" refers to, with some suggesting sodium carbonate. Indeed, the Neo Latin word for sodium natrium is derived from this same class of desert minerals called natron (French) from Spanish natrón through Greek νίτρον (nitron), derived from Ancient Egyptian netjeri, referring to the carbonate sodium salts occurring in the deserts of Egypt, not the nitrated sodium salts typically occurring in the deserts of Chile (classically known as "Chilean saltpeter" and variants of this term).
A term (ἀφρόνιτρον) which translates as "foam of niter" was a regular purchase in a fourth-century AD series of financial accounts, and since it was expressed as being "for the baths" was probably used as soap.
Niter was used to refer specifically to nitrated salts known as various types of saltpeter (only nitrated salts were good for making gunpowder) by the time niter and its derivative nitric acid were first used to name the element nitrogen, in 1790.
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