soapstone
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]soap + stone; so called because the archetypal varieties of the stone resemble soap in multiple ways: their feel, appearance, and carvability. First use appears c. 1681, in the writings of Nehemiah Grew.
Noun
[edit]soapstone (countable and uncountable, plural soapstones)
- (geology) A soft rock, rich in talc, also containing serpentine and either magnetite, dolomite or calcite.
- 2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 3, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN:
- To have a reliable fire, you'll need to carve a lamp from soapstone (you know what soapstone looks like, right?), render some oil for the lamp from blubber, and make a wick out of a particular species of moss.
- (mineralogy) Synonym of saponite
Synonyms
[edit]- soaprock
- steatite (often synonymous; more information at soapstone § Terminology)
Translations
[edit]soft rock
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Verb
[edit]soapstone (third-person singular simple present soapstones, present participle soapstoning, simple past and past participle soapstoned)
- (transitive) To scrub with soapstone.
Further reading
[edit]- David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Soapstone”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
- “soapstone”, in Mindat.org[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.
soapstone on Wikipedia.Wikipedia