porcelain
(ˈpɔəsɪleɪn, ˈpɔəslən)
Forms: α. (6 porcelana, 6–7 porcellana), 7– porcelain, (6–7 -cellan, -e, 6–9 -celaine, 7 -c'lane, 7–8 -celline, 8 -c'lain, 7–9 -celane; 6 (porseland) porslin, 7 porselan). β. 6–7 purcelan, 7 -ane, -ain, -aine, -ine, purcellan, pourcelain; 6–7 purslane, 6–8 -laine, 7 -lan; purselan, -lain.
[a. F. porcelaine (also OF. 13th c. pourcelaine, still in Cotgr. 1611), a Venus shell, cowrie, or similar univalve; hence, the dense polished substance of these shells, and (from its resemblance to this) china-ware; ad. It. porcellana (13th c. in Marco Polo) in same senses, a deriv., of adjective form, of porcella, dim. of porca: cf. Florio 1611, ‘Porcelle, as Porche, the fine Cockle or Muscle shels which Painters put their colours in’; ‘Porcellana,..Purcelane earth or dishes’. From It. also Sp., Pg. porcelana, and early 16th c. Eng. uses; also Ger. porzellan, Du. porselein, Da. porcellæn, Sw. porslin. In the Romanic langs., the name ran together with that of the herb purslane, in It. porcellana, OF. porcelaine, pourcelaine.
The ulterior etymology of It. porca, porcella is unsettled; see Skeat, Mahn Etymol. Untersuch. (1855) 13 Körting Lat. Rom. Wbch. 7313.]
1. a. A fine kind of earthenware, having a translucent body and a transparent glaze; = china1 3.
The name properly belongs to the hard paste or natural porcelain, composed of kaolin combined in China with petuntse, elsewhere with some siliceous material; but it is also applied to soft paste or artificial porcelain, which is essentially a substance intermediate between glass and earthenware, and hybrid porcelain or mixed porcelain, which contains a certain amount of kaolin.
| α c 1530 in Ellis Orig. Lett. iii. II. 242, iij. potts of Erthe payntid, callyd Porseland [? Porselana]. 1555 Eden Decades 226 He had two vesselles made of the fine earth cauled Porcellana. 1582 Lichefield tr. Castanheda's Conq. E. Ind. i. xlix. 106 Sixe great Tynages of fine Earth, which they doe call Porcelanas, and the same is verye costlye. 1596 Harington Apol. for Ajax B b vj, Serued in as fine plate, and Porslin, as any is in the North. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 524 They vse much the powder of a certaine herb called Chia, of which they put as much as a Walnut-shell may containe, into a dish of Porcelane, and drinke it with hot water. 1644 Evelyn Diary 3 Feb., Here [in Paris] is a shop.., where are sold all curiosities naturall or artificial,..as cabinets, shells, ivory, porselan. 1650 Ibid. 25 Apr., Of earth painted like Porcelain or China-ware. 1727 A. Hamilton New Acc. E. Ind. II. li. 239 We have the same Sort of Clay in several Parts of Great Britain, that Porcelline is made of, but we want the warm Sun to prepare it. 1756 Nugent Gr. Tour, Germany II. 260 Porcelane or Dresden china. 1825 Bentham Ration. Rew. 303 The potteries of Wedgwood and Bentley have excelled the porcelain of China. 1869 Roscoe Elem. Chem. (1871) 246 Chromium Sesquioxide is employed as a green colour for painting on porcelain. |
| β 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. x. 90 The meat..they lay into platters of purcelan. 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. ii. 35 In sawcers of glasse or purslaine. 1653 J. Hall Paradoxes 95 Purselain and Venice Glasses are the most apt to be broke. 1683 Weekly Mem. Ingen. 95 As for the pourcelain, 'tis not made of plaster or egg shells beaten fine, but of a certain earth. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. iii. viii. 17 China also, as Purceline. 1703 Lond. Gaz. No. 3953/1 A Manufacture of Lame, Purslaine and Earthen Ware. |
b. Used in
Dentistry.
| 1845 C. A. Harris Princ. & Pract. Dental Surg. (ed. 2) vi. i. 541 A want of resemblance to the other teeth, in colour, transparency, and animation, was the great objection, that was urged against the porcelain. 1863 Trans. Odontol. Soc. III. 228 The universal use of porcelain as a material of which to construct artificial teeth. 1911 G. H. Wilson Man. Dental Prosthetics viii. 311 The materials entering into dental porcelain are feldspar, silica, kaolin or clay, alkalies, and pigments. 1956 J. N. Anderson Appl. Dental Materials xxiv. 324 Today, porcelain is finding a resurgence of life, particularly in its application to crowns. 1965 Brit. Dental Jrnl. CXIX. 251/1 One of the main criticisms levelled at dental porcelain is the liability to fracture under low impact stress. |
c. fig. with allusion to the fineness, beauty, or fragility of this ware.
| 1640 Brome Sparagus Gard. v. viii, She is herself the purest piece of Purslane..that e're had liquid sweet meats lick'd out of it. 1821 Byron Juan iv. xi, Thrice fortunate! who, of that fragile mould, The precious porcelain of human clay, Break with the first fall. 1875 Tennyson Q. Mary ii. i, That fine porcelain Courtenay, Save that he fears he might be crack'd in using..should be in Devon too. |
† d. Applied in the 17th c. to the supposed natural plaster or paste then believed to congeal into porcelain.
Obs.| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 91 That earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white,..wherof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed. 1615 Bacon Argts. Law, Impeachm. Waste Wks. 1859 VII. 528 If we had in England beds of porcelain, such as they have in China,—which porcelain is a kind of a plaster buried in the earth and by length of time congealed and glazed into that fine substance. 1658 Phillips, Porcelane,..also the cream, or flowring on the top of a certain chalky earth, in China steeped in water, of which they make China dishes. |
2. An article or vessel made of porcelain; a piece of porcelain or china-ware. Usually in
pl.| 1604 E. G[rimstone] D' Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. xvii. 259 They seethe it in purcelaines. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 47 Silks, purslanes, sendals,..come from China. 1714 J. Macky Journ. thro' Eng. (1724) I. iii. 58 In another Gallery..[is] a good Collection of Porcelaines (China-ware) and other Curiosities. 1886 Pall Mall G. 19 Aug. 14/1 Windsor is full of these precious porcelains, and they adorn all her residences. |
3. a. The
cowrie (
Cypræa moneta). Hardly
Eng.,
exc. in
porcelain shell.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 88 The third [dye or colour] is ordinarily made of the purple & porcellane shel-fishes. 1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. 146 In the kingdomes of Caiacan and Carazan, certaine sea shels are currant, which some men terme Porcelline. 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 111 It must needs extravagantly exceed the biggest Nautilus or Porcellane-shell, both in latitude and number of turns. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) V. 129/1 In many places shells are current for coins; particularly a small white kind..called in the Indies cowries, or coris, on the coast of Africa bouges, in America porcelaines. 1875 Jevons Money, iv. 24 Cowry shells, which, under one name or another—chamgos, zimbis, bouges, porcelanes, &c.—have long been used. |
b. A variety of pigeon, having dark brown and cream plumage.
| 1855 [see hyacinth 3 b]. 1876 in R. Fulton Illustr. Bk. Pigeons xxv. 348 Porcelains..are closely allied to Suabians... These birds are of a nice rich brown.., the under parts being of an ashen tint. |
4. attrib. or as adj. a. lit. Of porcelain, made of porcelain or china.
| 1598 Florio, Porcellana,..porcellan dishes. 1625 B. Jonson Staple of N. ii. iv, In porc'lane dishes There were some hope. 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece iii. 216 The Walls cased with Porcelane Tiles. 1759 Johnson Rasselas iv, A maid who had broken a porcelain cup. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 312 Bring the porcelain tube to a red heat. 1877 W. Jones Finger-ring 8 The porcelain finger-rings of ancient Egypt are extremely beautiful. |
b. fig. Likened to porcelain in some respect: fine, delicate, fragile; superfine.
| 1638 W. Cartwright in Jonsonus Virbius, Though those thy thoughts, which the now queasy age Doth count but clods,..Will come up porcelain-wit some hundreds hence. 1870 H. Smart Race for Wife i, The dispensary ball, at which the porcelain portion of the community danced. 1884 Birrell Obiter Dicta 183 China creeds and delicate porcelain opinions. |
5. attrib. and
Comb., as
porcelain-blue,
porcelain earth,
porcelain grain,
porcelain-maker,
porcelain-making,
porcelain ware; also
porcelain-like,
porcelain-tinted,
porcelain-white adjs.;
porcelain cement, a cement for mending china or glass;
porcelain colour, a pigment employed for painting on porcelain;
porcelain-crab, a crab of the genus
Porcellana, so called from its smooth and polished shell;
porcelain enamel,
† (
a)
= glaze n. 1; (
b)
= enamel n. 1 a; so
porcelain-enamelled a.; hence
porcelain-enamel v. trans.,
porcelain enamelling vbl. n.;
porcelain jasper = porcellanite: see
jasper n.1 1;
porcelain-kiln = porcelain oven;
porcelain lace, porcelain in thin filaments made by soaking lace in the porcelain slip and then burning the threads and leaving the porcelain, used in the decorative work of Berlin porcelain;
porcelain oven, the oven or kiln in which porcelain is baked;
porcelain-paper, name of a kind of glazed French paper;
porcelain shell: see sense 3;
porcelain spar, a variety of ekebergite;
porcelain tooth, a false tooth made of porcelain;
porcelain tower, a famous tower at Nankin in China, covered with porcelain tiles.
| 1703 tr. H. van Oosten's Dutch Gardener ii. xxxviii. 91 The Hyacinth that is handsom, must have a clear *Porcelin, or China Blew, or near white Colour. 1882 Garden 4 Nov. 396/1 Pretty porcelain-blue blossoms. |
| 1600 J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa iii. 209 They haue such abundance of *porcellan earth. a 1774 Harte Confessor 31 True fame, like porc'lain earth, for years must lay Bury'd, and mix'd with elemental clay. |
| 1883 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XLIV. 397 (heading) Composition of *porcelain enamels. 1924 E. G. Blake Plumbing II. iii. 40 Porcelain enamel is practically everlasting, does not chip with reasonable treatment, and can be kept perfectly clean with very little trouble. 1946 Simonds & Bregman Finishing Metal Products (ed. 2) xxxiii. 332 The compound word ‘porcelain enamel’ was made necessary by the wrong use of the word ‘enamel’ by manufacturers of paints. 1951 Good Housek. Home Encycl. 224/2 Porcelain enamel, being essentially a glass fused to a metal, has the properties of glass. 1955 Insley & Fréchette Microsc. Ceramics & Cements xi. 211 Porcelain enamel may be defined as an inorganic, glassy coating on a metal base, prepared by covering the preformed metal with a wet or dry powder coating of suitable composition and firing it for a few minutes to melt and smooth the surface. 1969 Sears Catal. Spring/Summer 13 Two porcelain-enamel shelves. |
| 1921 Chem. & Metall. Engin. XXIV. 486/1 In 1860 the enameling of sheet iron was begun, and upon the advent of the drawing press and clay muffle in 1870 the process of *porcelain enameling steel as we know it today developed into the enameling industry. 1968 Engineering 26 July 171/3 Electron microbe examinations were made on a number of the magnesium-bearing alloys which had been porcelain enamelled without prior chromating treatments. |
| 1896 J. J. Lawler Amer. Sanitary Plumbing 229 (heading) The *porcelain-enamelled iron bathtub. 1935 H. R. Simonds Finishing Metal Products xxviii. 299 Some architects..have been successful in making these buildings more attractive..by giving them new faces made of porcelain-enameled steel. 1975 Specification (ed. 76) II. 109/2 Cast iron porcelain enamelled baths continue to maintain pre-eminence at the luxury end of the market. |
| 1921 Chem. & Metall. Engin. XXIV. 486/2 A temperature difference of more than 400 deg. F. (204 deg. C.) between the flue temperature and muffle temperature is not justifiable in the light of the latest developments in *porcelain enameling ovens. 1968 Engineering 26 July 171/1 Since the end of the Second World War increasing attention has been given to the porcelain enamelling of aluminium, particularly in the fields of architecture and kitchen ware. |
| 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 313 Porcellanite, *Porcelain Jasper, of Werner. 1876 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. xiv. 259 Shales converted into porcelain-jasper. |
| 1893 E. A. Barber Pott. & Porc. U.S. 258 It [sc. hard porcelain] is fired in biscuit at a low temperature, in the second story of the *porcelain-kiln. |
| 1836–9 Todd's Cycl. Anat. II. 79/2 A smooth *porcelain-like deposit. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 29 June 2/4 Made of white, porcelain-like glass. 1964 S. Duke-Elder Parsons' Dis. Eye (ed. 14) xxvi. 378 In less severe cases a dense leucoma forms, porcelain-like in lime burns, and sight is lost. |
| 1905 Daily Chron. 12 Aug. 3/1 The influence of Japanese decoration..was predominant with the English *porcelain-makers of the eighteenth century. |
| 1903 Ibid. 7 Jan. 3/2 The historian of an art, so many-sided in its efforts,..as English *porcelain-making. |
| 1914 E. A. Dawe Paper 129 *Porcelain paper, thick transparent paper of the nature of celluloid, made of well-beaten pulp. Used for Christmas cards and similar work. 1962 F. T. Day Introd. to Paper 119/1 Porcelain papers, bulky variety of glazed, imitation parchment, similar to celluloid. |
| 1845 C. A. Harris Princ. & Pract. Dental Surg. (ed. 2) vi. i. 540 The manufacture of *porcelain teeth, did not for a long time promise to be of much advantage to dentistry. 1872 L. P. Meredith Teeth (1878) 227 Of late years these have been entirely superseded by porcelain teeth. 1976 R. M. Basker et al. Prosthetic Treatm. Edentulous Patient vi. 56 If the patient's masticatory habits have been responsible for an excessive amount of wear in a short period of time, porcelain teeth must be used if the succeeding dentures are to be serviceable for an adequate period. |
| 1881 Scribner's Mag. XXI. 76/1 A blonde beauty, of the delicate, *porcelain-tinted type. |
| 1752 T. Salmon Univ. Trav. I. ii. 8/2 The grandest of all the Chinese Buildings is the *Porcelain Tower, which stands before one of the Gates of Nankin. |
| 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 37 The Bannians..sell Callicoes, Chena-satten, *Purcellan ware. |
| 1899 Daily News 29 June 6/7 A cameo..wrought in a beautiful *porcelain-white upper stratum of a sardonyx. |
Hence
ˈporcelainist, a maker or decorator of porcelain; a connoisseur or collector of porcelains;
ˈporcelainite, a trade-name for certain kinds of fine white stone-ware.
| 1890 in Cent. Dict. 1895 Athenæum 2 Mar. 287/3 Signatures of potters and European (not Asiatic) porcelainists. |