What is a pumice stone?

Senior Moments

A very light porous volcanic scoria, usually of a gray color, the pores of which are capillary and parallel, giving it a fibrous structure. It is supposed to be produced by the disengagement of watery vapor without liquid or plastic lava. It is much used, esp. in the form of powder, for smoothing and polishing. Called also just pumice. Aug 13 03, 3:20 AM

sequoianoir

One of the unique characteristics of pumice because of its very high pore volume (which can reach 85%), is the fact that it floats. In some coastal regions you can find pumice actually floating in the ocean - almost all fresh grey pumice floats. Like a bath sponge, pumice is riddled with pores of irregular or oval shape which are usually not connected to each other. Pumice has the composition of rhyolite. It may contain a variety of minute crystals of silicate minerals, such as feldspar and ferro-magnesians, and also has a considerable amount of glass. Pumice is the Latin for FOAM ! Aug 13 03, 5:57 AM

mibmob

Sekky - where do you get that from? Pumice comes from pumex-pumicis - a pumice stone. Spuma is foam. Aug 13 03, 9:04 AM

sequoianoir

[Middle English, from Anglo-Norman pomis, from Late Latin pmex, from Latin pmex, alteration of spuma, foam.] The name pumice is derived from the Latin word pumex, meaning foam. Various web sources Aug 13 03, 1:40 PM

mibmob

Yes, I now see where you have theses from from and I even found this which is Isadore of Seville: Pumex vocatur eo quod spumae densitate concretus Fiat; but Lewis and Short show no connection in classical times between the words. Pumex means only a pumice stone even as late as Martial. Aug 13 03, 1:51 PM

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