On Sun, 23 May 2004 14:09:02 UTC, (Beecrofter) opined:
"Stan Goodman" wrote in message news:uViCr8LlbtmJ-pn2-SdXmySFDUjd8@poblano...
On Sat, 22 May 2004 20:19:03 UTC, (Beecrofter) opined:
Lissy wrote in message ws.com...
I have a window box with my herbs in and lately I have noticed black
aphids on my chives (and a few on my coriander). There are so many on
my chives, that they are all turning yellow and dying. Can anyone
suggest a way to get rid of them, yet still making the chives OK to eat
???? I have read that soapy water will help - but I dont really want
to eat chives with detergent on them !!!!

Soap is not detergent.

Soap is indeed detergent; that's why it works for its cleaning purposes. Perhaps what you have in your memory is that not all detergents are soap.

Detergents can be phytotoxic.
You can rinse the aphids off.
You can rinse the soap and dead aphids off if you use soap.
Cooking oil spray might work for you too. (lecithin)


I stand by my original statement.
Detergent
NOUN: A cleansing substance that acts similarly to soap but is made
from chemical compounds rather than fats and lye.

You have not named the dictionary from which you are quoting, so I can't
check it directly, but its definition (if you are quoting it in full) is
deficient, as might be found in a small pocket dictionary.

When I studied chemistry a very long time ago, the cleaning action of soaps
was termed "detergence". At that time, the first synthetic soap substitute
had just appeared on the market. The molecule was "sodium lauryl sulphate";
the tradename slips my memory at the moment. This and its successors were
called "synthetic detergents", soaps being the natural detergents by
contrast. That these synthetic detergents have now become more ubiquitous
does not deprive soaps of their detergent nature, or even of their
classification as detergents, although IN COLLOQUIAL SPEECH people often
make the abbreviated distinction soaps vs. detergents. The point is that it
is proper to classify soaps as detergents.

Here is what Websters Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary says. Note that the
word is
first documented in the seventeenth century, rather a long time
before synthetic detergents existed.

detergent adj. (1616): that cleanses: cleansing.
detergent n. (1676): a cleansing agent; as (a) soap (b) any of numerous
synthetic water-soluble or liquid organic preparations that are chemically
different from soaps but are able to emousify oils, hold dirt in
suspensions, and act as wetting agents (c) an oil-soluble substance that
holds insoluble foreign matter in suspension and is used in lubicating oils
and dry-cleaning solvents.

There is also a definition for a verb from the same root (deterge), first
documented in English in 1623 (again, well before synthetics), meaning
simply to wash off, to cleanse. Nothing about synthetic, natural, or
anything else.

So as I said, soaps are detergents; not all detergents are soap. I don't
think your original statement is tenable.

And just to add to the confusion, the liquid synthetic detergent in my
bathroom is labelled "Soapless Soap", which is an oxymoron.

--
Stan Goodman
Qiryat Tiv'on
Israel

Saddam is gone. Ceterum, censeo Arafat esse delendum.

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