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no soap Slang.
[Middle English sope, from Old English sāpe.]
Background
Soap is a combination of animal fat or plant oil and caustic soda. When dissolved in water, it breaks dirt away from surfaces. Through the ages soap has been used to cleanse, to cure skin sores, to dye hair, and as a salve or skin ointment. But today we generally use soap as a cleanser or perfume.
The exact origins of soap are unknown, though Roman sources claim it dates back to at least 600 B.C., when Phoenicians prepared it from goat's tallow and wood ash. Soap was also made by the Celts, ancient inhabitants of Britain. Soap was used widely throughout the Roman empire, primarily as a medicine. Mention of soap as a cleanser does not appear until the second century A.D. By the eighth century, soap was common in France, Italy, and Spain, but it was rarely used in the rest of Europe until as late as the 17th century.
Manufacture of soap began in England around the end of the 12th century. Soap-makers had to pay a heavy tax on all the soap they produced. The tax collector locked the lids on soap boiling pans every night to prevent illegal soap manufacture after hours. Because of the high tax, soap was a luxury item, and it did not come into common use in England until after the tax was repealed in 1853. In the 19th century, soap was affordable and popular throughout Europe.
Early soap manufacturers simply boiled a solution of wood ash and animal fat. A foam substance formed at the top of the pot. When cooled, it hardened into soap. Around 1790, French soapmaker Nicolas Leblanc developed a method of extracting caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) from common table salt (sodium chloride), replacing the wood ash element of soap. The French chemist Eugene-Michel Chevreul put the soap-forming process (called in English saponification) into concrete chemical terms in 1823. In saponification, the animal fat, which is chemically neutral, splits into fatty acids, which react with alkali carbonates to form soap, leaving glycerin as a byproduct. Soap was made with industrial processes by the end of the 19th century, though people in rural areas, such as the pioneers in the western United States, continued to make soap at home.
Raw Materials
Soap requires two major raw materials: fat and alkali. The alkali most commonly used today is sodium hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide can also be used. Potassium-based soap creates a more water-soluble product than sodium-based soap, and so it is called "soft soap." Soft soap, alone or in combination with sodium-based soap, is commonly used in shaving products.
Animal fat in the past was obtained directly from a slaughterhouse. Modern soapmakers use fat that has been processed into fatty acids. This eliminates many impurities, and it produces as a byproduct water instead of glycerin. Many vegetable fats, including olive oil, palm kernel oil, and coconut oil, are also used in soap making.
Additives are used to enhance the color, texture, and scent of soap. Fragrances and perfumes are added to the soap mixture to cover the odor of dirt and to leave behind a fresh-smelling scent. Abrasives to enhance the texture of soap include talc, silica, and marble pumice (volcanic ash). Soap made without dye is a dull grey or brown color, but modern manufacturers color soap to make it more enticing to the consumer.
The Manufacturing
Process
The kettle method of making soap is still used today by small soap manufacturing companies. This process takes from four to eleven days to complete, and the quality of each batch is inconsistent due to the variety of oils used. Around 1940, engineers and scientists developed a more efficient manufacturing process, called the continuous process. This procedure is employed by large soap manufacturing companies all around the world today. Exactly as the name states, in the continuous process soap is produced continuously, rather than one batch at a time. Technicians have more control of the production in the continuous process, and the steps are much quicker than in the kettle method—it takes only about six hours to complete a batch of soap.
The Kettle Process
Boiling
Salting
Strong change
Pitching
The Continuous Process
Splitting
Mixing
Cooling and finishing
Milling
Byproducts
Glycerin is a very useful byproduct of soap manufacture. It is used to make hand lotion, drugs, and nitroglycerin, the main component of explosives such as dynamite.
Where To Learn More
Books
Cavitch, Susan M. The Natural Soap Book: Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps. Storey Communications, 1995.
Maine, Sandy. The Soap Book: Simple Herbal Recipes. Interweave Press, 1995.
Spitz, Luis, ed. Soap Technologies in the 1990s. American Oil Chemists Society, 1990.
Other
About Soap. Procter & Gamble, 1990. (513) 983-1100.
[Article by: Sheila Dow]
In addition to the idiom beginning with soap, also see no dice (soap); on one's soapbox; soft soap.
For more information on soap, visit Britannica.com.
A brick or tile of normal face dimensions, having a nominal 2-in. (5-cm) thickness.
Ancient peoples are believed to have employed wood ashes and water for washing and to have relieved the resulting irritation with grease or oil. In the 1st cent. A.D., Pliny described a soap of tallow and wood ashes used by Germanic tribes to brighten their hair. A soap factory and bars of scented soap were excavated at Pompeii. Soap fell into disuse after the fall of Rome but was revived in Italy probably in the 8th cent. and reached France c.1200; Marseilles became noted as a soapmaking center. Although soap was known in England in the 14th cent., the first English patent to a soapmaker was issued in the 17th cent. The industry was handicapped in England from 1712 to 1853 by a heavy tax on soap. In the American colonies soap factories appeared at an early date, and many housewives made soap from waste fats and lye (obtained by leaching wood ashes).
The manufacture of soap was stimulated by Chevreul's discovery of oleic and stearic acids in the early 19th cent. and by Leblanc's method (1791) of preparing soda from salt. Chemically, soaps are metallic salts of fatty acids. The manufacture of soap is based on a chemical reaction (saponification) in which an alkali acts upon a fat to form a metal salt (soap) and an alcohol (glycerol). A number of methods may be employed to make soap, but all are based on the same principle of operation. Fats and oils (often blended) are heated in a large vessel, then enough alkali to react with all the fat is stirred in. Salt is added, and the soap then forms a light curd that floats to the surface. Glycerol, a valuable byproduct, can be distilled from the liquid residue.
To produce a purer soap, the curds are washed with salt solution, water is later added, and the solution is allowed to settle; the upper of the two layers thus formed is the pure soap, called settled soap. It is thoroughly churned, poured into huge frames, cut with wires, shaped, and stamped. Hard-milled soap is run over chilled rollers and is scraped off as chips which are rolled into ribbons, cut, and shaped. Soap is marketed also as chips, flakes, and beads and in powdered form. Soap powders, as distinguished from powdered soap, contain builders that assist in rough cleaning. Soaps differ according to the lathering properties of the fat or oils and according to the alkali employed. When sodium hydroxide is used as the alkali, hard soaps are formed; potassium hydroxide yields soft soaps.
Aluminum, calcium, magnesium, lead, or other metals are used in place of sodium or potassium for soaps used in industry as paint driers, ointments, and lubricating greases and in waterproofing. Fillers are added to many soaps to increase lathering, cleansing, and water-softening properties; the sodium salt of rosin is commonly used in yellow laundry soap to increase lathering. Soap substitutes include saponin-containing plants such as soapwort and shagbark and the modern soapless detergents (usually sulfonated alcohols), which may be used in hard water and even in saltwater without forming curds.
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Once all wet and in the bath, Sarah realized that she had no soap.
Soap is a surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning that historically comes in solid bars but also in the form of a thick liquid, especially from soap dispensers in public washrooms.
Historically, soap has been composed of sodium (soda
ash) or potassium (potash) salts of fatty acids derived by reacting fat with
Many cleaning agents today are technically not soaps, but detergents, which are less expensive and easier to manufacture.
Soaps are useful for cleaning because soap molecules attach readily to both nonpolar molecules (such as grease or oil) and polar molecules (such as water). Although grease will normally adhere to skin or clothing, the soap molecules can attach to it as a "handle" and make it easier to rinse away. Applied to a soiled surface, soapy water effectively holds particles in suspension so the whole of it can be rinsed off with clean water.
The hydrocarbon ("fatty") portion dissolves dirt and oils, while the ionic end makes it soluble in water. Therefore, it allows water to remove normally-insoluble matter by emulsification.
The most popular soapmaking processes today is the cold process method, where fats such as olive oil react with lye. Soapmakers sometimes use the melt and pour process, where a premade soap base is melted and poured in individual molds. While some people think that this is not really soap-making, the Hand Crafted Soap Makers Guild does recognize this as a legitimate form of soap making or soap crafting. Some soapers also practice other processes, such as the historical hot process, and make special soaps such as clear soap (glycerin soap), which must be made through the melt and pour process.
Handmade soap differs from industrial soap in that, usually, an excess of fat is sometimes used to consume the alkali (superfatting), and in that the glycerin is not removed. Superfatted soap, soap which contains excess fat, is more skin-friendly than industrial soap; though, if not properly formulated, it can leave users with a "greasy" feel to their skin. Often, emollients such as jojoba oil or shea butter are added 'at trace' (the point at which the saponification process is sufficiently advanced that the soap has begun to thicken), after most of the oils have saponified, so that they remain unreacted in the finished soap. Superfatting can also be accomplished through a processed called superfat discount, where, instead of putting in extra fats, the soap maker puts in less lye.
Reacting fat with sodium hydroxide will produce a hard soap.
Reacting fat with potassium hydroxide will produce a soap that is either soft or liquid. Historically, the alkali used was potassium hydroxide made from the deliberate burning of vegetation such as bracken, or from wood ashes.
Soap is derived from either oils or fats. Sodium tallowate, a common ingredient in many soaps, is in fact derived from rendered beef fat. Soap can also be made of vegetable oils, such as palm oil, and the product is typically softer. If soap is made from pure olive oil it may be called Castile soap or Marseille soap. Castile is also sometimes applied to soaps with a mix of oils, but a high percentage of olive oil.
An array of quality oils and butters are used in the process such as olive, coconut, palm, cocoa butter, hemp oil and shea butter to list a few. Each oil chosen by the soap maker has unique characteristics that provide different qualities to handmade soaps including mildness, lathering and hardness. For example olive oil provides mildness in soap; coconut oil provides lots of lather while coconut and palm oils provides hardness. Most common, though, is a combination of coconut, palm, and olive oils.
In both cold-process and hot-process soapmaking, heat is required for saponification.
Cold-process soapmaking takes place at a temperature sufficiently above room temperature to ensure the liquification of the fat being used, and requires that the lye and fat be kept warm after mixing to ensure that the soap is completely saponified.
Unlike cold-processed soap, hot-processed soap can be used right away because lye and fat saponify more quickly at the higher temperatures used in hot-process soapmaking.
Hot-process was used when the purity of lye was unreliable, and can use natural lye solutions such as potash. The main benefit of hot processing is that the exact concentration of the lye solution does not need to be known to perform the process with adequate success.
Cold-process requires exact measurement of lye to fat using saponification charts to ensure that the finished product is mild and skin friendly. Saponification charts can also be used in hot-process soapmaking, but are not as necessary as in cold-process.
In the hot-process method, lye and fat are boiled together at 80 – 100 °C until saponification occurs, which the soapmaker can determine by taste (the bright, distinctive taste of lye disappears once all the lye is saponified) or by eye (the experienced eye can tell when gel stage and full saponification have occurred).
After saponification has occurred, the soap is sometimes precipitated from the solution by adding salt, and the excess liquid drained off.
The hot, soft soap is then spooned into a mold.
A cold-process soapmaker first looks up the saponification value of the fats being used on a saponification chart, which is then used to calculate the appropriate amount of lye. Excess unreacted lye in the soap will result in a very high pH and can burn or irritate skin. Not enough lye, and the soap is greasy and oily. Most soap makers formulate their recipes with a 4-10% discount of lye so that all of the lye is reacted and that excess fat is left for skin conditioning benefits.
The lye is dissolved in water. Then oils are heated, or melted if they are solid at room temperature. Once both substances have cooled to approximately 100-110 degrees Fahrenheit, and are no more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit apart in temperature, they may be combined. This lye-fat mixture is stirred until "trace"(Modern-day amateur soapmakers often use a stick blender to speed this process.). There are varying levels of trace. Depending on how your additives will affect trace, they may be added at light trace, medium trace or heavy trace. After much stirring, the mixture turns to the consistency of a thin pudding.
Essential oils, fragrance oils, botanicals, herbs, oatmeal or other additives are added at light trace, just as the mixture starts to thicken.
The batch is then poured into molds, kept warm with towels or blankets, and left to continue saponification for 18 to 48 hours. Milk soaps are the exception. They do not require insulation. Insulation may cause the milk to burn. During this time, it is normal for the soap to go through a "gel phase" where the opaque soap will turn somewhat transparent for several hours before turning opaque again. The soap will continue to give off heat for many hours after trace.
After the insulation period the soap is firm enough to be removed from the mold and cut into bars. At this time, it is safe to use the soap since saponification is complete. However, cold-process soaps are typically cured and hardened on a drying rack for 2-6 weeks (depending on initial water content) before use. If using caustic soda it is recommended that the soap is left to cure for at least 4 weeks.
The common process of purifying soap involves removal of sodium chloride, sodium hydroxide, and glycerol. These components are removed by boiling the crude soap curds in water and re-precipitating the soap with salt.
Most of the water is then removed from the soap. This was traditionally done on a chill roll which produced the soap flakes commonly used in the 1940s and 1950s. This process was superseded by spray dryers and then by vacuum dryers.
The dry soap (approximately 6-12% moisture) is then compacted into small pellets. These pellets are now ready for soap finishing, the process of converting raw soap pellets into a salable product, usually bars.
Soap pellets are combined with fragrances and other materials and blended to homogeneity in an amalgamator (mixer). The mass is then discharged from the mixer into a refiner which, by means of an auger, forces the soap through a fine wire screen. From the refiner the soap passes over a roller mill (French milling or hard milling) in a manner similar to calendering paper or plastic or to making chocolate liquor. The soap is then passed through one or more additional refiners to further plasticize the soap mass. Immediately before extrusion it passes through a vacuum chamber to remove any entrapped air. It is then extruded into a long log or blank, cut to convenient lengths, passed through a metal detector and then stamped into shape in refrigerated tools. The pressed bars are packaged in many ways.
Sand or pumice may be added to produce a scouring soap. This process is most common in creating soaps used for human hygiene. The scouring agents serve to remove dead skin cells from the surface being cleaned. This process is called exfoliation. Many newer materials are used for exfoliating soaps which are effective but do not have the sharp edges and poor size distribution of pumice.
The earliest known use of a natural soap-like substance was the powder of the Reeta (Sapindus) nut, which was used by Indians since antiquity. Hindus in India were obliged to bathe at least once a day, every morning, in accordance with Ayurveda. Evidence of manufactured soap use are Babylonian clay cylinders dating from 2800 BC containing a soap-like substance. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC.
The Ebers papyrus (Egypt, 1550 BC) indicates that ancient Egyptians bathed regularly and combined animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like substance. Egyptian documents mention that a soap-like substance was used in the preparation of wool for weaving.
It had been reported that a factory producing soap-like substances was found in the ruins of Pompeii (79 AD). However, this has proven to be a misinterpretation of the survival of some soapy mineral
substance,[citation needed] probably soapstone at the Fullonica where
it was used for dressing recently cleansed textiles. Unfortunately this error has been repeated widely and can be found in
otherwise reputable texts on soap history. The ancient Romans were generally ignorant of soap's detergent properties, and made
use of the strigil to scrape dirt and sweat from the body. The word "soap" (Latin sapo)
appears first in a European language in Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis, which discusses the manufacture of soap from
A story encountered in some places claims that soap takes its name from a supposed "Mount Sapo" where ancient Romans sacrificed animals. Rain would send a mix of animal tallow and wood ash down the mountain and into the clay soil on the banks of the Tiber. Eventually, women noticed that it was easier to clean clothes with this "soap". The location of Mount Sapo is unknown, as is the source of the "ancient Roman legend" to which this tale is typically credited.[1] In fact, the Latin word sapo simply means "soap"; it was borrowed from a Celtic or Germanic language, and is cognate with Latin sebum, "tallow", which appears in Pliny the Elder's account. Roman animal sacrifices usually burned only the bones and inedible entrails of the sacrificed animals; edible meat and fat from the sacrifices were taken by the humans rather than the gods. Animal sacrifices in the ancient world would not have included enough fat to make much soap. The legend about Mount Sapo is probably apocryphal.
True soaps made from vegetable oils (such as olive oil), aromatic oils (such as thyme oil) and Lye (al-Soda al-Kawia) were first produced by Muslim chemists in the medieval Islamic world.[2] The formula for soap used since then hasn't changed and are identical to the current soap sold in modern times. From the beginning of the 7th century, soap was produced in Nablus (West Bank, Palestine), Kufa (Iraq) and Basra (Iraq). Soaps, as we know them today, are descendants of historical Arabian Soaps. Arabian Soap was perfumed and colored, some of the soaps were liquid and others were hard. They also had special soap for shaving. It was commercially sold for 3 Dirhams (0.3 Dinars) a piece in 981 AD. The Persian chemist Al-Razi wrote a manuscript on recipes for true soap. A recently discovered manuscript from the 13th century details more recipes for soap making; e.g. take some sesame oil, a sprinkle of potash, alkali and some lime, mix them all together and boil. When cooked, they are poured into molds and left to set, leaving hard soap.
Historically, soap was made by mixing animal fats with lye. Because of the caustic lye, this was a dangerous procedure (perhaps more dangerous than any present-day home activities) which could result in serious chemical burns or even blindness. Before commercially-produced lye (sodium hydroxide) was commonplace, potash, potassium hydroxide, was produced at home for soap making from the ashes of a hardwood fire.
Castile soap was later produced in Europe from the 16th century.
In modern times, the use of soap has become universal in industrialized nations due to a better understanding of the role of hygiene in reducing the population size of pathogenic microorganisms. Manufactured bar soaps first became available in the late nineteenth century, and advertising campaigns in Europe and the United States helped to increase popular awareness of the relationship between cleanliness and health. By the 1950s, soap had gained public acceptance as an instrument of personal hygiene.
Rarely, conditions allow for corpses to naturally turn in to a soap-like substance, such as the Soap Lady on exhibit in the Mutter Museum.
Until the Industrial Revolution soap-making was done on a small scale and the product was rough. Andrew Pears started making a high-quality, transparent soap in 1789 in London. With his grandson, Francis Pears, they opened a factory in Isleworth in 1862. William Gossage produced low-price good quality soap from the 1850s. Robert Spear Hudson began manufacturing a soap powder in 1837, initially by grinding the soap with a mortar and pestle. William Hesketh Lever and his brother James bought a small soap works in Warrington in 1885 and founded what is still one of the largest soap businesses, now called Unilever. These soap businesses were among the first to employ large scale advertising campaigns to sell the output of their factories.
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - sæbe, bestikkelse
v. tr. - indsæbe, afsæbe, smigre, sleske for
idioms:
Français (French)
n. - savon, pommade (fam), flatterie
v. tr. - savonner
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Seife, (ugs.) Seifenoper
v. - einseifen
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - σαπούνι, σαπουνόπερα
v. - σαπουνίζω
idioms:
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - sabão (m), sabonete (m), suborno (m)
v. - ensaboar, adular, bajular
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
мыло, "мыльная опера", многосерийная передача, мелодрама, намыливать, мылить, намыливаться, мылиться, льстить
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - jabón, lisonja, adulación, dinero
v. tr. - jabonar, enjabonar, frotar con jabón, dar jabón, adular
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tvål, såpa, mutor (sl.)
v. - tvåla (in), såptvätta
中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
肥皂, 钱, 皂, 肥皂剧, 用肥皂擦洗, 对...拍马屁, 向...灌迷魂汤, 涂肥皂于, 贿赂
idioms:
中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 肥皂, 錢, 皂, 肥皂劇
v. tr. - 用肥皂擦洗, 對...拍馬屁, 向...灌迷魂湯, 塗肥皂於, 賄賂
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 비누, 아첨, 뇌물
v. tr. - 비누칠하다, ~에게 아부하다
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 石鹸
v. - 石鹸でこする, …におべっかを言う
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) مال يرشى به, صابون (فعل) يتملق, يغسل بالصابون, يصوبن
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - סבון
v. tr. - סיבן, החניף
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Some good "soap" pages on the web:
 American Sign Language commtechlab.msu.edu |
| soap | Soap Dish |
| Bar Soap | Shiseido Soap |
Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "soap" at WikiAnswers.
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| How Products are Made. How Products are Made. Copyright © 2002 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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