soapstone

English

Untreated soapstone.

Etymology

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

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

• soaprock
• steatite (often synonymous; more information at soapstone § Terminology)

Translations

soft rock

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: стеатит m (steatit), талкохлорит m (talkohlorit)
• Catalan: esteatita f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 皂石 (zh) (zàoshí)

• Dutch: speksteen (nl) m
• Egyptian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: vuolukivi (fi), saippuakivi (fi)
• French: stéatite (fr) f
• German: Speckstein m
• Greek: στεατίτης (el) m (steatítis), σαπουνόπετρα (el) f (sapounópetra)
• Greenlandic: ukkusissaq
• Hindi: सिलखड़ी (hi) f (silkhaṛī)
• Hungarian: szappankő
• Ingrian: muilakivi
• Inuktitut: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: steatite (it) f, pietra saponaria f
• Kannada: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 동석(凍石) (ko) (dongseok)
• Kyrgyz: самын таш (samın taş)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kleberstein m

• Persian: استاتیت (astatat)
• Polish: steatyt m
• Portuguese: pedra-sabão f
• Russian: мы́льный ка́мень (mýlʹnyj kámenʹ), талькохлори́т (ru) m (talʹkoxlorít), стеати́т (ru) m (steatít), та́льковый ка́мень m (tálʹkovyj kámenʹ), жирови́к (ru) m (žirovík)
• Slovene: steatit m
• Spanish: esteatita f, roca de jabón f
• Swedish: täljsten (sv) c
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: sabuntaşı (tr)
• Ukrainian: жировик m (žyrovyk), стеатит m (steatyt)
• Welsh: sebonfaen f
• Yoruba: please add this translation if you can

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To scrub with soapstone.

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Soapstone”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “soapstone”, in Mindat.org‎^[1], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.
• soapstone on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• teaspoons