porcelain
Pronunciation Noun
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Pronunciation Noun
porcelain
- (usually, uncountable) A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as a symbol of the fragility, elegance, etc. traditionally associated with porcelain goods.
- (usually, uncountable) Synonym of china#English|china: porcelain tableware.
- c. 1530, letter in Original Letters Illustrative of English History, Vol. II, p. 242:
- He set the table with our porcelain and stemware.
- (uncountable, obsolete) Synonym of kaolin#English|kaolin: the kind of clay traditionally used in China to manufacture porcelain.
- 1599, Richard Hakluyt translating E. de Sande in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, 2nd ed., Vol. II, p. 91:
- […] that earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white,... wherof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed...
- 1599, Richard Hakluyt translating E. de Sande in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, 2nd ed., Vol. II, p. 91:
- (countable, now usually plural) An object made of porcelain, (particularly) art objects or items of tableware.
- The museum has an extensive collection of rare Chinese porcelains.
- (countable, now rare) Synonym of cowrie#English|cowrie.
- (countable, obsolete or historic) Synonym of wampum#English|wampum: strings of shells, beads, etc. used as ornamentation or currency; the composite shells, beads, etc.
- (countable, often capitalized) A kind of pigeon with deep brown and off-white feathers.
- 1855, The Poultry Chronicle, No. 3, p. 9:
- Those pretty spangled Toys […] known by various names, as Porcelains, Hyacinths, Ermines, &c.
- 1855, The Poultry Chronicle, No. 3, p. 9:
- French: porcelaine
- German: Porzellan
- Italian: porcellana
- Portuguese: porcelana
- Russian: фарфо́р
- Spanish: porcelana, loza
- French: porcelaine
- German: Porzellan
- Portuguese: porcelana
- Russian: фарфо́р
- Spanish: porcelana
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003