soapstone

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English

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Untreated soapstone.

Etymology

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From 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

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soapstone (countable and uncountable, plural soapstones)

  1. (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.
  2. (mineralogy) Synonym of saponite

Synonyms

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Translations

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Verb

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soapstone (third-person singular simple present soapstones, present participle soapstoning, simple past and past participle soapstoned)

  1. (transitive) To scrub with soapstone.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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