a yellow fuming corrosive mixture of one part nitric acid and three to four parts hydrochloric acid, used in metallurgy for dissolving metals, including gold
Also called: nitrohydrochloric acid
Word origin
C17: from New Latin: royal water; referring to its use in dissolving gold, the royalmetal
aqua regia in American English
(ˈridʒiə)
a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids
Word origin
L, lit., kingly water: it dissolves the “noble metals,” gold and platinum