pumice-stone, n.
(ˈpʌmɪsstəʊn, ˈpʌmɪstəʊn)
Forms: see below and pumice n.
A. Illustration of Forms.
(α) [1 pumicstan]; 7 pumick(e stone.
| [c 1000 ælfric Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 148/3 Pumex, pumicstan.] 1613 Jackson Creed i. To Rdr. E j, The Pumicke stones did flie about mens eares in the open fields. 1648 Macfarlane Geog. Collect. (S.H.S.) II. 516 In this town ther ar aboundance of pumick stonis floating upon the water. |
(β) 6 pomise, pummyse stone, 7 pumis stone; 6– pumice-stone.
| 1576 Baker Jewell of Health 4 What is it..than to desire wool from an Asses backe, or to wryng water out of a Pummyse stone? 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Pierre ponce, a pomise stone. 1590 Pumice stone [see B. d]. 1681 Grew Musæum iii. i. vi. 321 An ash-colour'd Pumis Stone. |
(γ) 6 pumishe, 6–7 pumish stone.
| 1550 T. Hoby Trav. (1902) 52 Pumishe stones which are so light that they flee upp with the flame and so fall in the asshes. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. ii. Scot. 24 A lighter body and spungeous..in maner of a pumish stone. |
(δ) 6 pumistone, pumy stone, 6–7 pumie, pummie, 7 pummy stone.
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 2 The substance..spongie, not vnlike a thicke Pummie stone. 1579 Pumie stones [see B. a]. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. v. 30 A gentle streame, whose murmuring wave did play Emongst the pumy stones. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 183 Like a fast sponge or a smooth pumie-stone. 1662 J. Bargrave Pope Alex. VII (1867) 123 Small cinders and pummy stones of Mont Aetna. |
B. Signification. a. A stone composed of pumice: = pumice 1 b.
| 1550 [see A. γ]. 1576 [see A. β]. 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Mar. 89 Tho pumie stones I hastly hent, And threwe: but nought availed. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 567 By reason of..fistulous porosities therin, like a pumish stone. 1681 Grew Musæum i. i. 9 The Bones of a Humane Leg and Foot..in some places rarified like a Sponge or Pumice-Stone. 1767 Hamilton in Phil. Trans. LVIII. 6 The pumice-stones, falling upon us like hail. 1836 W. Irving Astoria (1849) 409 A plain..strewed with pumice stones and other volcanic reliques. |
b. As a substance: = pumice n. 1 a.
| 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. i. iii. Furies 153 Repleat with Sulphur, Pitch and Pumy Stone. 1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iii. xxv. 197 Other thicke matter which dissolves into ashes, into pumice stone, or such like substance. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. II. 184 The fire was mixed with prodigious quantities of brimstone, sand, pumice-stone, and ashes. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) I. v. 162 Filled with fragments of pumice-stone. |
c. As a thing of use: = pumice n. 1 c.
| 1573–80 Baret Alv. P 857 A Pumish stone vsed to make parchment smooth, pumex. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 544 To slick, polish, & smooth them again with the pumy stone. 1662 Pepys Diary 25 May, Trimming myself..with a pumice stone. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets xi. 350 Scribes offer their pens and ink and pumice-stone to Hermes. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 221/2 The body now receives a staining coat, after which it is well rubbed down with pumice-stone. |
† d. fig.: cf. pumice n. 1 d. Obs.
| 1583 Greene Mamillia ii. To Rdrs., Wks. (Grosart) II. 145 Although shee hath not the Pumistone of learning to pollish her words with superficiall eloquence. 1590 Greene Never too late (1600) Title-p., Beeing a right Pumice stone, apt to race out idlenes with delight, and follie with admonition. 1622 Donne Serm., John xi. 35 (1640) 160 To weep for other things, and not to weep for sin..this is a spunge dried up into a Pumice stone. 1647 Owen Death of D. Wks. 1852 X. 333 Is not this rather a pumice-stone than a breast of consolation? |
e. attrib.
| 1876 tr. Wagner's Gen. Pathol. (ed. 6) 319 The affected parts thereby assume..a pumice-stone consistency. |
Hence ˈpumice-stone v. trans. = pumice v.
| 1851 Ord. & Regul. R. Engineers xix. 88 Putting up Lining Paper,..pumice-stoning,..and sizing. 1887 Athenæum 24 Dec. 867/1 The parchment..of a still more ancient MS. pumice-stoned to an even surface. |