In a #Stornoway #pharmacy today, someone a bit older than me asked the counter assistant if they had any #saltpetre .  The assistant, I think somewhere between us in age, had no idea what that was.  So she told her, potassium nitrate.  No comprehension.  So she asked if they had a chemist here.  The word chemist seemed a bit more familiar, and the assistant went to ask.  Returning to say we don’t have any and no known substitutes.

It’s been a while since we had a chemists...

#language #changes

"Messrs Achburn, Soulpetre and Ashreborn" and the ingredients of gunpowder in James Joyce's "Finnegans Wake". #111Words #JamesJoyce #FinnegansWake #RolandMcHugh #Gunpowder #Sulfur #Saltpetre #Charcoal https://andrewjshields.blogspot.com/2023/02/messrs-achburn-soulpetre-and-ashreborn.html