inheritance powder

English

Etymology

So called because one person might murder another to gain an inheritance.

Noun

inheritance powder (plural inheritance powders)

1. (historical) Any of several poisons used for murder, but especially arsenic and, to a lesser extent, thallium.
   • 2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 316:

     `Arsenic was very popular in the old days [...] Inheritance powder, they called it. Pure, deadly, white, dissolves in any weak acid.'