A salt or ester of formic acid, containing the group HCOO-, used in industry, textiles, and as a food preservative.
From 'formic acid' (which comes from Latin 'formica,' meaning ant—because it's found in ant venom). The '-ate' suffix indicates a salt or ester form.
Formates are everywhere in industry and even appear in some insects' chemical defenses—sodium formate is used to preserve foods and in leather tanning!
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