meerschaum

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪər.ʃɔːm/, /mɪər.ʃəm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)ʃɔːm, -ɪə(ɹ)ʃəm

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.

   • 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 150:

     There was nothing else to do, and he was doing it to the best of his ability - having, in fact, fallen into a trance of admiration before a large meerschaum - when MacQuibble hove in sight on his way to the Life Class at the Gallery.

• David Barthelmy (1997–2026), “Meerschaum”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “meerschaum”, in Mindat.org, Keswick, Va.: Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2026.