Adulterant

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A substance added to something to reduce its purity or quality, often for fraudulent profit or to make it unsafe for consumption
2. A material mixed into a product to impair its purity or quality, usually for deceitful gain or to render it hazardous for use
3. A contaminating agent incorporated into a substance to lower its quality or safety, frequently for dishonest purposes or toxins

Etymology: Its root is the Latin "alter," meaning "other," so "adulterare" originally meant "to make something other than it was." Latin speakers used it for corrupting or falsifying things, and English took the idea over with the same sense of change for the worse. The same verb also gave English "adultery," through the Latin "adulter," which meant someone who defiles or corrupts, and the sexual meaning developed from that general sense of corruption. "Adulterant" is the agent form, naming the substance that does the corrupting. Its sense as a noun for a foreign substance mixed into food or drugs is the narrower, commercial meaning that grew from the broader Latin idea of corruption. Chalk in flour and water in milk fit that pattern, since the added material alters the original by lowering its quality.

Synonyms: contaminant, impurity, additive, taint, debaser