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bo·rax1 (bôrks, -ks, br-)
n.


1. A hydrated sodium borate, Na2B4O7·10H2O, an ore of boron, that is used as
a cleaning compound.
2. An anhydrous sodium borate used in the manufacture of glass and various
ceramics.

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[Middle English from Medieval Latin from Arabic braq, from Middle Persian
brak.]

borax \Bo"rax\, n. [OE. boras, fr. F. borax, earlier spelt borras; cf. LL.
borax, Sp. borraj; all fr. Ar. b?rag, fr. Pers. b?rah.] A white or gray
crystalline salt, with a slight alkaline taste, used as a flux, in soldering
metals, making enamels, fixing colors on porcelain, and as a soap. It occurs
native in certain mineral springs, and is made from the boric acid of hot
springs in Tuscany. It was originally obtained from a lake in Thibet, and was
sent to Europe under the name of tincal. Borax is a pyroborate or tetraborate
of sodium, Na2B4O7.10H2O.


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It's mined right out of the ground. "Environmentally friendly"? I live in
the desert, so it's pretty environmental around here. <g>

It's poison to eat it, but not deadly just sickening (and so are lots of
things, if you eat them in quantity).

In the wagon train movies (not popular in the past decade or two) when they
start yelling and whining about alkali flats and the water being undrinkable,
they're on about borax or potash or some naturally-occuring salt-stuff which
is found where the land was under water prehistorically (or during the flood,
for the creationists in the readership).

Sandra