'nitrate' originates from French, specifically the word 'nitrate', where 'nitre' meant 'saltpeter'.

'nitrate' changed from Medieval Latin/Old French terms such as 'nitras'/'nitrate' and eventually became the modern English word 'nitrate'.

Initially, it referred to salts related to 'nitre' (saltpeter); over time it came to mean specifically 'a salt or ester of nitric acid' and the anion NO3− in modern chemistry.