Holystone

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈhəʊl.ɪ.stəʊn/

Definitions

1. A rectangular block of soft sandstone used by sailors to scrub and clean the wooden decks of ships
2. a soft sandstone block employed by sailors to scrub and maintain wooden ship decks through abrasive cleaning
3. a porous sandstone implement used historically at sea for scouring and whitening wooden deck surfaces

Etymology: The most striking thing about this word is how many competing stories its origin has, and none of them can be confirmed. The compound itself is plain enough: "holy" and "stone." What is uncertain is why a sailor's scouring block carried that name. One explanation links it to an older amulet, a stone with a natural hole through it that was thought to protect against misfortune. Those amulets may have been called "holey" stones, and the scouring block may have taken its name from them, though whether the sea-going stone was linked to the amulet is unproven. Other theories are more domestic. Some suggest the name came from the habit of scrubbing decks on Sundays, the day of rest and worship. Others propose that sailors, bent over the deck on their knees with the stone in hand, looked like people at prayer. A less likely account says the early stones were taken from graveyards, which would make them literally holy stones. Each story has supporters, and the sea-going sense of the word is the one that stays fixed.