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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A fine-grained white, greenish, or gray mineral, Mg3Si4O10(OH)2, having a soft soapy feel and used in talcum and face powder, as a paper coating, and as a filler for paint and plastics.
  2. v. To apply this substance to (a photographic plate, for example).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A magnesian silicate, usually consisting of broad, flat, smooth laminæ or plates, unctuous to the touch, of a shining luster, translucent, and often transparent when in very thin plates. Its prevailing colors are white, apple-green, and yellow. There are three principal varieties of talc—foliated, massive (including soap-stone or steatite), and indurated. Indurated talc is used for tracing lines on wood, cloth, etc., instead of chalk. Talc is not infrequently formed by the alteration of other minerals, particularly the magnesian silicates of the pyroxene group; thus, rensselaerite is talc pseudomorphous after pyroxene, and a fibrous form of talc (sometimes called agalite), pseudomorph after enstatite, is found at Edwards, New York, and when finely ground is used in giving a gloss to paper. Talc is also used as a lubricator, and steatite or soapstone for hearthstones, etc.
  2. To treat, or rub with talc: as, in photography, to talc a plate to which it is desired to prevent the adherence of a film.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A soft mineral of a soapy feel and a greenish, whitish, or grayish color, usually occurring in foliated masses.
  2. v. To apply talc

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Min.) A soft mineral of a soapy feel and a greenish, whitish, or grayish color, usually occurring in foliated masses. It is hydrous silicate of magnesia. Steatite, or soapstone, is a compact granular variety.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a fine grained mineral having a soft soapy feel and consisting of hydrated magnesium silicate; used in a variety of products including talcum powder
  2. v. apply talcum powder to (one's body)

Etymologies

  1. From Middle French talc, from Arabic طلق (ṭalq), from Persian تلک (talk). (Wiktionary)
  2. French, from Medieval Latin talcum and Old Spanish talco, both from Arabic ṭalq, from Persian talk. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “You refer to brown, blue and white asbestos, as well as talc, and refer approvingly of Christopher Booker�s assertion that white asbestos is �is to all intents and purposes indistinguishable from talc� because they are both hydrated magnesium silicates with very similar formulae.”

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED

  • “The name talc is thought to be derived from the Arabic word talg or talk meaning mica since talc forms mica-like flakes.”

    Featured Articles - Encyclopedia of Earth

  • “_French chalk_: A variety of the mineral called talc, unctuous to the touch, of greenish color, glossy, soft, and easily scratched, and leaving a silvery line when drawn on paper.”

    American Woman's Home

  • “_French chalk_, a variety of the mineral called talc, unctuous to the touch, of a greenish color, glossy, soft, and easily scratched, and leaving a silvery line, when drawn on paper.”

    A Treatise on Domestic Economy For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

  • “As a consumer who tries to choose all natural products, I was always a bit put off by Avons powders because they used to contain talc, which is a red flag in some peoples book.”

    Epinions Recent Content for Home

  • “It allows the introduction of substances such as talc to obliterate the pleural space called pleurodesis, which prevents more fluid from accumulating and pressing on the lung.”

    Patrick Dougherty and the Trees of Civic Center

  • “- Changing the clay body, which means reducing the amount of slippery substances such as talc, or changing the type of talc from”

    5. Semidry foaming

  • “I found the inner wall to consist of a kind of talc, mingled with threads of asbestos, and also indications of mica.”

    Swiss Family Robinson

  • “The company may be able to unload $1.5 billion to $4.0 billion in assets, such as talc, borates and coal, in the first half of this year, he predicted.”

    Forbes.com: News

  • “It allows the introduction of substances such as talc, to the space Pleurafibrose, which prevents more than the accumulation of fluid and pressure on the lungs.”

    xml's Blinklist.com

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‘talc’ has been looked up 2614 times, added to 12 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 6.