pumice

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman and Old French pomis (“pumice stone”), from Latin pūmex (“pumice stone”). Doublet of pounce.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpʌm.ɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌmɪs

Noun

pumice (countable and uncountable, plural pumices)

1. A light, porous type of pyroclastic igneous rock, formed during explosive volcanic eruptions when liquid lava is ejected into water or air as a froth containing masses of gas bubbles, which are frozen into the rock as the lava solidifies.
   • 1912, Katherine Mansfield, The Woman at the Store, Oxford World's Classics 2002, page 10:

     The wind blew close to the ground - it rooted among the tussock grass - slithered along the road, so that the white pumice dust swirled in our faces - settled and sifted over us and was like a dry-skin itching for growth on our bodies.

Derived terms

• pumicelike
• pumiceous
• pumice raft
• pumice stone

 

Related terms

• pumiciform
• pumiceous
• pumicate

Translations

pumice

• Arabic: خَفَاف m (ḵafāf)
• Armenian: պեմզա (hy) (pemza)
• Basque: pumita
• Belarusian: пе́мза f (pjémza)
• Bengali: ঝামা পাথর (jhama pathor)
• Breton: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: пе́мза f (pémza)
• Catalan: pumicita f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 浮石 (zh) (fúshí), 浮岩 (zh) (fúyán)

• Czech: pemza (cs) f
• Danish: pimpsten (da)
• Dutch: puimsteen (nl)
• Esperanto: pumiko
• Estonian: pimss
• Finnish: hohkakivi (fi)
• French: ponce (fr) f, pierre ponce (fr) f

  Old French: pomis m, ponce m

• Friulian: pomighe f
• Galician: pedra pómez (gl) f
• Georgian: პემზა (ṗemza)
• German: Bims (de) m
• Greek: ελαφρόπετρα (el) f (elafrópetra)

  Ancient: κίσηρις f (kísēris)

• Hebrew: פומיס
• Hindi: झाँवाँ (hi) m (jhā̃vā̃)
• Hungarian: habkő (hu), horzsakő (hu), tajtékkő (hu)
• Icelandic: vikur (is)
• Ido: pumiko (io)
• Indonesian: batu apung (id)
• Irish: slíogart m
• Italian: pomice (it)
• Japanese: 軽石 (ja) (かるいし, karuishi)
• Kazakh: пемза (pemza)
• Korean: 경석 (gyeongseok)
• Kyrgyz: пемза (pemza)
• Latin: pūmex m
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: pemza f
• Maori: pungapunga, tāhoata
• Norman: pièrre dé ponce f (Jersey)
• Northern Sami: dikŋa
• Norwegian: pimpstein
• Occitan: pomce m
• Odia: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: سنگ پا (fa) (sang-e pâ)
• Polish: pumeks (pl) m
• Portuguese: pedra-pomes (pt) f, púmice (pt) m
• Punjabi: please add this translation if you can
• Romanian: piatră ponce (ro) f
• Russian: пе́мза (ru) f (pémza)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: пловућац m

  Roman: plovučac

• Sicilian: petra pùmici f
• Slovak: pemza (sk) f
• Spanish: pumita (es) f, piedra pómez (es) f
• Swedish: pimpsten (sv)
• Tagalog: batong-buga, buga
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: ponza (tr)
• Ukrainian: пе́мза f (pémza)
• Urdu: please add this translation if you can
• Uzbek: pemza (uz)
• Vietnamese: đá bọt
• Welsh: pwmis m
• Yiddish: פּימס m (pims)

Verb

pumice (third-person singular simple present pumices, present participle pumicing, simple past and past participle pumiced)

1. (transitive) To abrade or roughen with pumice.

See also

• pumice stone
• pumiceous

Latin

Noun

pūmice

1. ablative singular of pūmex