soapstone

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.

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

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

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

1. (transitive) To scrub with soapstone.

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

• teaspoons