pumice

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  and (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French pomis (“pumice stone”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin pūmex (“pumice stone”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpʌmɪs/

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 the air as a froth containing masses of gas bubbles. As the lava solidifies, the bubbles are frozen into the rock.
   • 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
• 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)
• Bulgarian: пе́мза f (pémza)
• Catalan: pumicita f
• Chinese:

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

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

  Old French: pomis m, ponce m

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

  Ancient: κίσηρις f (kísēris)

• Hebrew: פומיס
• Hungarian: habkő (hu), horzsakő, tajtékkő
• Icelandic: vikur (is)
• Indonesian: batu apung (id)
• Irish: slíogart m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: pomice (it)
• Japanese: 軽石 (ja) (かるいし, karuishi)
• Kazakh: пемза (pemza)
• Korean: 경석 (gyeongseok)
• Kyrgyz: пемза (pemza)
• Latin: pūmex m
• Lithuanian: pemza f
• Maori: pungapunga, tāhoata
• Norman: pièrre dé ponce f (Jersey)
• Norwegian: pimpstein
• Persian: سنگ پا (fa) (sang-e pā)
• Polish: pumeks (pl) m
• Portuguese: pedra-pomes f
• 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
• Turkish: ponza (tr)
• Ukrainian: пе́мза f (pémza)
• Uzbek: pemza (uz)
• Vietnamese: đá bọt
• Welsh: pwmis m

Verb

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

See also

• pumice stone
• pumiceous

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Latin

Noun

(deprecated template usage) pūmice

1. ablative singular of pūmex