Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- 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.
- v. To apply this substance to (a photographic plate, for example).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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. - 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
- n. A soft mineral of a soapy feel and a greenish, whitish, or grayish color, usually occurring in foliated masses.
- v. To apply talc
GNU Webster's 1913
- 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
- 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
- v. apply talcum powder to (one's body)
Etymologies
- From Middle French talc, from Arabic طلق (ṭalq), from Persian تلک (talk). (Wiktionary)
- 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.”
“The name talc is thought to be derived from the Arabic word talg or talk meaning mica since talc forms mica-like flakes.”
“_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.”
“_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.”
“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.”
“- Changing the clay body, which means reducing the amount of slippery substances such as talc, or changing the type of talc from”
“I found the inner wall to consist of a kind of talc, mingled with threads of asbestos, and also indications of mica.”
“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.”
“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.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘talc’.
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Minerals and Mineralogy
List of minerals, elements, group names and geochemistry terms encountered in the science of mineralogy. I've chosen to avoid capital letters in most examples, though a great many mineral names hon...
galkhaite, xanthoconite, pyrostilpnite, polybasite, pyrargyrite, djurleite, digenite, covellite, chalcocite, cerargirite, acanthite, aeschynite and 2608 more...
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Of Arabic Origin
Arabic loanwords in English are words acquired directly from Arabic or else indirectly by passing from Arabic into other languages and then into English. Most entered one or more of the Romance lan...
admiral, adobe, albatross, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, alembic, alfalfa, algebra, algorism, algorithm, alidade and 181 more...
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Ends with C but not with "-ic"
bloc, roc, arc, orc, disc, sac, xebec, havoc, bivouac, sumac, maniac, insomniac and 418 more...
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White Stuff
White things
Feel free too addtalc, refrigerator, snow, flour, sugar, paper, bedlinen, pillows, white, chalk, envelope, vanilla and 26 more...
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CHEM - early chemistry terms
coined by Alchemists and scientists of the Enlightment
green lion, spirit of salt, butter of antimony, flower of zinc, spirit of hartshorn, salt of hartshorn, narcotic salt of ..., blue vitriol, fixed air, regulus of antimony, crucible, sal ammoniac and 31 more...
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jilma's list
favorite sounding words
alchemy, missoula, tenacity, colibrí, lilith, tangible, tangle, emblazoned, brazen, willowy, baroque, macabre and 35 more...
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thing
apron, lard, clove, camphor, alfalfa, amber, caraway, juniper, kohl, lute, shale, glyph and 142 more...
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Some new Wordie words this week
Don't tell them they are not real--they might cry.
glover, breakfront, submaximal, criticality, lanoline, mouthy, botheration, metaphorically, metaphase, disavowal, arum, ostentatiously and 162 more...
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Permutations
There are 17576 different sequences of three letters (26 x 26 x 26). How many of them occur in words? General rules of engagement: mononyms only, lower case preferred to upper case, short preferred...
aaargh, niqaabi, Isaac, raad, baaed, haaf, laager, aah, kamaaina, Naajaat, aak, aalii and 637 more...
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leaven heaven
a haven for lightness
leaven, lever, levity, alleviate, carnival, elevate, legerdemain, mezzo-relievo, relevant, relieve, leprechaun, lung and 36 more...
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Printmaking Terms
inky sod, spreads like a disease
manicule, perfecting, lithography, relief, etching, serigraph, pantone, pms, edition, gum arabic, chine-collé, intaglio and 78 more...
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persian words in english
words originally derived from persian that have made it to english sometimes with several stops in intermediate languages
balcony, algorithm, arsenic, aubergine, azure, baghdad, beige, bombast, borax, bronze, caftan, calabash and 79 more...
Tweets
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