borax

Meaning

Noun

1. A white or gray/grey crystalline salt, with a slight alkaline taste, used as a flux, in soldering metals, making enamels, fixing colors/colours on porcelain, and as a soap, etc.
2. The sodium salt of boric acid, Na₂B₄O₇, either anhydrous or with 5 or 10 molecules of water of crystallization; sodium tetraborate.
3. Cheap or tawdry furniture or other works of industrial design.

Verb

To treat with borax.

Synonyms

boron

cyanide

flux

rosin

tincal

zala

sodium borate

natrium biboricum

sal sedatirum

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈbɔː.ɹæks/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: boras

Cognate with Persian: بوره

In summary

From Middle English boras, from Anglo-Norman boreis, from Medieval Latin borax, baurach (“borax”), from Arabic بَوْرَق (bawraq), from Middle Persian bwlk' (bōrag), which yielded Persian بوره (bure).