meerschaum

See also: Meerschaum

English

Meerschaum pipe

Etymology

Borrowed from German Meerschaum (literally “sea foam”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪər.ʃɔːm/, /mɪər.ʃəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)ʃɔːm, -ɪə(ɹ)ʃəm

Noun

meerschaum (countable and uncountable, plural meerschaums)

1. (uncountable) A soft white mineral, chiefly used for smoking-pipes and cigar holders.

   Synonym: sepiolite

   • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 14, in Crime out of Mind‎^[1]:

     He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, gin, whiskey, vermouth and sherry, mixed with violin bows, a flute, a toppling pile of books, six volumes of Grove's Dictionary mingled with paperback thrillers, a guitar without any strings, a pair of binoculars, a meerschaum pipe and a jar half-full of wasps and apricot jam.

2. (countable) A smoking-pipe made from meerschaum.
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 330:

     The sale of part of his property cleared the rest. A large portion of his income was put aside to accumulate. Horses, pictures, wines, bijouterie, German meerschaum, and Turkish hookahs, were alike brought to the hammer.

   • 1831, Edgar Allan Poe, “The purloined letter”, in An edition of Poems‎^[2]:

     At Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18—, I was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum, in company with my friend C. Auguste Dupin, in his little back library, or book-closet, au troisiême, No. 33, Rue Dunôt, Faubourg St. Germain.

Translations

mineral

• Bulgarian: морска пяна f (morska pjana)
• Finnish: merenvaha (fi)
• French: écume de mer (fr) f
• German: Meerschaum m
• Romanian: spumă-de-mare (ro), piatră ponce (ro)
• Swedish: sjöskum (sv) n

smoking pipe

• Bulgarian: лула от морска пяна f (lula ot morska pjana)
• Czech: meršánka f, pěnovka (cs) f
• Finnish: merenvahapiippu (fi)
• German: Meerschaum m
• Romanian: pipă din spumă-de-mare
• Swedish: sjöskumspipa (sv) c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Danish: merskum

Further reading

• David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Meerschaum”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “meerschaum”, in Mindat.org‎^[3], Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.