China--prophetes.ai

China, n.¹ and a.
  (ˈtʃaɪnə)
  Forms: see under II.
  [Not a native Chinese name, but found in Skr. as Chīna about the Christian era, and in various modified forms employed by other Asiatic peoples. In Marco Polo Chin, in Barbosa (1516) and Garcia de Orta (1563) China. So in Eng. in Eden 1555.
  (The origin of the name is still a matter of debate. See Babylonian & Or. Recd. I. Nos. 3 and 11.)]
  I. 1. The country so called, in Asia.

1555 Eden Decades W. Ind. (Arb.) 260 The great China whose kyng is thought..the greatest prince in the world.

† b. A Chinaman, a Chinese. Obs.

1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. i. ii. (1651) 644 How those witty China's..should be so gulled. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. iii. (1638) 338 The Chynaes are curious in novelties.

2. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib. Now generally superseded by Chinese a., exc. where this would be ambiguous, as in China trade, China trader, China merchant, etc. See also 3 a.

1589 Hakluyt Voy. 551 margin, China ships with one saile. 1660 Pepys Diary 28 Sept., I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink). 1668 Wilkins Real Char. Table 441 Concerning the China Character. 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 344 The old China Books. 1720 De Foe Capt. Singleton xiv. (1840) 245 We found the China traders. 1868 C. Collingwood (title) Rambles of a Naturalist on the shores and waters of the China sea.

b. in names of natural products, etc., as China-aster (see aster 3); China-berry U.S., in full Chinaberry tree, (a) the wild China or soap-berry (Sapindus saponaria) of the southern U.S.; (b) = China-tree; China-crape, a kind of silk crape; China-goose, a variety of goose found in China in immense flocks during the winter, esp. near Canton; China-grass, Bœhmeria (Urtica) nivea, a small shrubby plant with broadly cordate leaves, native to China and Sumatra; also the strong fibre obtained from the inner bark of this shrub, used in the making of grass-cloth; China hog, a breed of swine; also ellipt.; China-ink = Indian-ink, a black pigment sold in bars and cakes, consisting generally of lamp-black and size (see also quots.); China-orange, the Sweet Orange of commerce (Citrus Aurantium), originally brought from China; freq. taken as a typical object of trifling value; China-pea, Caragana Chamlagu, a native of Siberia and the East; China-pink, Dianthus chinensis, a perennial flowering pink; China-rose, (a) the Monthly Rose (Rosa indica) and the Red Rose (R. semperflorens) with their many varieties; (b) Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis (family Malvaceæ), a tree 20 to 30 feet high, with beautiful flowers of various colours; China-root (see china²); China silk, a lightweight silk fabric in plain weave; China snoek S. Afr., a small immature specimen of the snoek fish Thyrsites atun (see quot. 1957); China tea, a type of tea prepared from a small-leaved variety of tea plant (Camellia sinensis var. sinensis) grown chiefly in S. China and differing from other kinds of tea chiefly in that it is cured with smoke; China-tree, (U.S.) the azedarac; China-ware, ware from China (see 3 a); China-wax, a white crystalline wax soluble in alcohol, the product of Coccus sinensis.

1890 Harper's Mag. Dec. 106/2 The high gray towers..were crowned with ornaments like the berries of the *china⁓berry trees. 1908 R. W. Chambers Firing Line xxix, A subtler scent..came to him on the sea-wind;..—the lilac perfume of china-berry in bloom. 1932 E. Caldwell Tobacco Road i. 8 Ellie May stood behind a chinaberry tree. 1944 R. M. Harper Prelim. Rep. Weeds Alabama 141 M. Azedarach L. Chinaberry. A medium-sized tree, very commonly cultivated for shade in the South.

1813 Jane Austen Let. 29 Jan. (1932) II. 298, I hope you will wear your *China crape. 1871 C. M. Yonge Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe i. 4 A scarlet China crape shawl. Ibid. viii. 40 A sort of blue China-crape tunic.

1602 Carew Cornwall 24 b, Cornwall hath Doues, Geese, *China geese.

1858 R. Hogg Veg. Kingd. 673 The excellent fibre known as *China-grass. 1884 Weekly Scotsman 9 Feb. 1/7 The rhea, China grass, or ramie plant, as it is variously called, is said to possess the strongest fibre in nature. 1880 Blackmore Erema xix. (Hoppe), I had not one atom of Russian twist or dyed china-grass cloth in my hair.

1838 H. Colman Rep. Agric. Mass. 74 A cross with some of our small boned breed, such as the Byfield or the *China [hog]. 1851 C. Cist Cincinnati 279 The hogs raised for this market, are generally a cross of Irish Grazier Byfield..and China. 1871 Eggleston Hoosier Schoolm. (1872) xxvi. 180 You can't make nothin else out of him, no more nor you can make a china hog into a Berkshire.

1782 Wilson in Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 156, I pencilled the bottom of the hollows all over black with *China ink. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 776 It is said that the true China ink is made from the condensed smoke or soot of burned camphor.

1665–6 Pepys Diary 5 Mar., I..made them welcome with wine and *china oranges (now a great rarity). 1698, etc. [see orange n.¹ 1 a]. 1771 P. Parsons Newmarket II. 149 A hundred pounds to a China orange upon Eclipse. 1819, 1849 China orange [see Lombard-Street].

1660 Act 12 Chas. II (Tonnage & Poundage) Capravens, Cockared Caps, *China Pease, Citterns.

1731 Miller Gard. Dict., Double *China Rose, commonly called in the West Indies, Martinico Rose. 1760 J. Lee Botany (1776) App. (Jod.) China rose, hibiscus. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. iv. (1863) 264 In the middle of a fine October, while the China-roses covered the walls.

1614 in T. Roe Jrnl. (1899) II. 556 A Riall and a half of 8 the pownd..is more than the whight *China silke doth cost in the Indies. 1720 Defoe Capt. Singleton 335 We had Fifteen Bales of very fine China Silks. 1858 O. W. Holmes Aut. Breakf.-t. 314 Some marrowy crapes of China silk, Like wrinkled skins on scalded milk. 1945 C. S. Forester Commodore iii. 27 A nightshirt of solid China silk.

1950 Cape Argus 28 Oct. (Mag. Section) 3/6 *China snoek..have thicker bodies and shorter heads than the large snoek. The scientists refuse to recognize the China snoek as a different species. 1957 S. Schoeman Strike! 117 The so-called ‘China snoek’, those undersized snoek which are found in Table Bay docks during August to October and in False Bay during November–January.

1811 Jane Austen Let. 31 May (1932) 286 We began our *China Tea three days ago. 1920 J. M. Barrie Kiss for Cinderella iii. 130 You'll have a cup of China tea and some of this cake?

1819 E. Evans Pedestrious Tour 315 Here grew the *China tree, of a beautiful appearance, and bearing fruit of an inviting aspect. 1847 Longfellow Ev. ii. ii. 21 Shaded by china-trees..Stood the houses of planters. 1850 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom xxxviii. 332 The shadows of the graceful china-trees lay minutely pencilled on the turf below.

  II. China porcelain, China-ware, china.
  [Throughout India, and the East generally, the Persian name is widely diffused as chīnī, in the sense of ‘porcelain’, ‘china-ware’. From India this form and use of the word was prob. introduced in the 17th c. into England, whence the spellings 17th c. chiney, cheny, cheney, chenea, mod. dial. chainy, chaney, chany, chaynee, chayney, cheenie, cheeny, and the fashionable pronunciation of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, (ˈtʃeɪnɪ) (see Walker), which with (ˈtʃiːnɪ), still survives in the dialects.]
  3. A species of earthenware of a fine semi-transparent texture, originally manufactured in China, and first brought to Europe in the 16th c. by the Portuguese, who named it porcelain. Early in 18th c. it began to be manufactured in Europe.
  a. China-ware (which naturally occurs earlier than china) had at first the literal sense of ‘ware from China’. This was soon shortened to china, and as the shortened form became gradually the common name of the material, ‘china-ware’ came to be regarded as ‘ware made of china or porcelain’, the sense it now bears.

1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 41 They sell Callicoes, Cheney Sattin, Cheney ware. 1699 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) IV. 553 The price of china ware in London is fallen 12s. in the pound. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull Postscr. xv, John came with his constable's staff to..break the Esquire's China-ware. 1789 Mrs. Piozzi Journ. France II. 125 His collection of China-ware [is] valuable and tasteful. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts & Manuf. III. 603 A fusible earthy mixture, along with an infusible, which, when combined, are susceptible of becoming semi-vitrified and translucent in the kiln..constitute true porcelain or china-ware.

b. china.

1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. lii. 206 A Present of certain very rich Pieces of China. 1679 Penn Addr. Prot. i. 17 Massy Plate, Rich Cheny. 1685 Crowne Sir Courtly Nice i. 8 Women, like Cheney, shou'd be kept with care, One flaw debases her to common ware. 1694 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 281 Three trunks..in which were chenea and other fine things. 1735 Pope Ep. Lady 172 Mistress of herself, tho' China fall. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 200 Calling for his Dresden China. 1823 Lamb Elia, Old China, I have an almost feminine partiality for old china. 1884 M. E. Braddon Ishmael xxx, A tea-table with Queen Anne urn and old English china. 1896 G. F. Northall Warwicks. Word-Bk. 45 Chāney sb. and adj., china. Oxf., Shrop., SE Worc., and elsewhere. 1897 W. B. Yeats Secret Rose 171 One party was quietly playing ‘chanies’, as they called house-keeping with pieces of broken pottery. 1936 ‘F. O'Connor’ Bones of Contention 178 Sacred Heart, he'd make chanies of the crockery on me!

c. dial. chainy, chaney, chany, chaynee, chayney, cheenie, cheeny. Also pl., pieces of broken china; see also quot. 1897.

1823 E. Moor Suffolk Words 74 Cheeny, China. Both ware and country. 1831 S. Lover Legends & Stories of Ireland 167 A bull in a chaynee shop. 1860 Geo. Eliot Mill on Fl. I. iii. ii. 278 There's none of 'em got better chany. 1864 B. Brierley Chron. Waverlow 88 Tum had the old-fashioned ‘chaney’..spread upon the table. 1868 Lady Verney Stone Edge xx. 234 His yead were cracked all one as a chayney jug. 1880 Patterson Gloss. Antrim & Down 18 Chainy, china.

4. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib. Of china, made of china or porcelain.
[In the earliest quotations China prob. often bears sense 1, the transition being gradual.]

1579 Drake's Voy. in Hakluyt (1600) III. 736 Fine China-dishes of white earth, and great store of China-silks. 1598 Florio, Porcellana..whereof they make China dishes, called Porcellan dishes. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. ii. i. 97 They are not China-dishes, but very good dishes. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. v. §7 We are not throughly resolved concerning Porcellane or China dishes, that according to common belief they are made of Earth. 1717 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. II. xliv. 19 The sherbet..was served in China bowls. 18.. L. Hunt Country Lodging, The chaney shepherds and shepherdesses on the mantelpiece. 1818 Hazlitt Eng. Poets iv. (1870) 95 The fall of a china-jar. 1884 R. Holland Gloss. Chester 60 Thy uncle and aunts' comin to tay this afternoon, Mary; tha'd better get th' chainy cups and saucers ait.

b. fig.

1884 Birrell Obiter Dicta 183 The mischief he will do to his neighbours' china creeds and delicate porcelain opinions, is shocking to contemplate.

c. Comb., as china-blue, china-fancier, china-hunter, china-oven, china-shop (see also bull n.¹ 1 c); china-closet, a closet for china; china eye, a wall eye; china-glaze, a preparation for painting blue fret, composed of glass, lead, and blue calx; † china-house, a house where china-ware was exhibited (often alluded to as a house of assignation); china-man (see Chinaman 1); china mark, a collectors' name for any moth of the genus Hydrocampa and allied genera; china money (see quot. and cf. china token); china-paints, pigments specially prepared for use upon china; so china-painting; china-shell, a collectors' name of the Ovulum ovum, given in allusion to the white porcelain-like surface of the shell; china-stone, a kind of talcose granite, the felspar of which has undergone partial decomposition, used for producing a glaze in the manufacture of porcelain; † china-tipper (see tip); china token, a token of porcelain or earthenware used in porcelain and pottery works; china-ware (see 3 a); china wedding U.S. (see quot.); † china-woman, a woman keeping a china-house or china-shop. Also china-like adj. See also china-clay, -metal.

1866 Mrs. Gaskell Wives & Dau. ix, Her eyes were soft, large, and *china-blue in colour.

1807 Crabbe Par. Reg. iii. 348 Her *china-closet, cause of daily care. 1823 Lamb Elia, Old China, When I go to visit any great houses, I enquire for the china-closet.

1928 F. T. Barton Kennel Encycl. 372 Wall eye..is applied to one or both eyes..in which the iris or the irises is destitute of its usual pigmentation, giving the eye a light colour—*China eye. 1964 F. O'Rourke Mule for Marquesa (1967) vi. 80 He turned and his right eye rolled, the china eye, white-marbled and yellow-veined, the birthmark, the trademark of the man.

1878 Hallberger's Illust. Mag. 1002 (Hoppe) To *china-fanciers he is known as the famous Maestro Giorgio.

1784 S. Jones Let. 8 Mar. in J. Wedgwood's Lett. (1965) 288 A man that can make as good a *China glaze..as any man in the country.

1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. i. iii. (1616) 536 To watch when ladies are gone to the *China houses, or the Exchange. 1730 J. Miller Humours Oxford ii, For the evening, that noon of pleasure, operas, masquerade, assemblies, china-houses, play-houses.

1878 Hallberger's Illust. Mag. 1002 (Hoppe) To the *china-hunter, every object in his cabinet or on his brackets is a trophy.

1868 Timbs Eccentr. Anim. Creation 299 Porcelain crabs, with delicate, *china-like shells.

1832 J. Rennie Consp. Butterfl. & Moths 150 Hydrocampa... The Lettered *China-mark (H. literalis). 1901 W. F. Kirby Butterflies & Moths 112 China Marks..are moths rarely exceeding an inch in expanse. 1959 J. Clegg Freshwater Life (ed. 2) xiv. 213 They are commonly called the China Mark Moths from the fancied resemblance of the markings on the wings of some of them to the potters' marks inscribed on the bottom of good china.

1868 L. Jewitt in Art Jrnl. 282/1 The issuing of ‘*chainé money’, i.e., tokens representing different values of money, made of china... They were called ‘Mr. Cokes' coin’, or ‘chainé money’ (china money), in the provincialism of the locality.

1881 Porcelain Works, Worcester 26 A *china oven takes about forty hours to fire.

1880 Harper's Mag. June, Hundreds of women who are taking lessons in *china-painting. 1942 W. Faulkner Go Down, Moses 263 She gave lessons in china-painting.

1886 Gray & Woodward Sea-Weeds, Shells 47 The Cypræ idæ or Cowries..With these is classed the ‘*China-shell’ (Ovulum).

1616 T. Roe Let. 14 Feb. in Jrnl. (1899) I. 134, I thought all India a *China shop, and that I should furnish all my Frendes with rarietyes. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull Postscr. xi, How he set up a China-shop over-against Nic. Frog. 1848 Thackeray Van. Fair xxxii, Such a bull in a china-shop I never saw.

1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 776 No satisfactory explanation has yet been offered of the conditions which operate on the granite to produce the *China stone.

1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5900/4 Henry Ward..*China-Tipper, late of Little Old Bailey.

1878 Jewitt Ceramic Art II. 141 One peculiarity connected with the Pinxton China Works..is the issuing of *china tokens, i.e., tokens representing different values of money, made of china, and payable as money among the workpeople and others, including shopkeepers.

1888 Girl's Own Paper 24 Mar. 407/2 In America..is the ‘crystal-wedding’, which is kept after fifteen years of married life... Then, too, there is the ‘*china-wedding’, which is observed five years later.

1609 B. Jonson Sil. Wom. i. iv, His wife was the rich *China-woman that the courtiers visited so often. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 336 ¶3, I am, dear Sir, one of the top China-women about town..One..calls for a set of tea-dishes, another for a basin, a third for my best green tea.

III. 5. = cheyney.

1790 A. Wilson Poems, Groans fr. Loom, And then the last boon I'll implore, Is to bless us with China so tight.

6. Short for China rose (a) and for China tea.

1844 J. W. Loudon Ladies' Compan. Flower Garden (ed. 3) 344 Rosa indica (the common China); Rosa semperflorens (the monthly China). 1898 M. A. von Arnim Eliz. & German Garden 17, I have misgivings as to the effect of the Persian Yellows among the Chinas, for the Chinas are such wee little baby things. 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 1/1 Tea... Finest China, Plain (Moning). 1938 S. Beckett Murphy v. 83, I ask for China and you give me Indian. 1964 J. Turner Slate Landscape xvi. 158 I'll tell you all about it over tea. You like China, I suppose?

7. Short for china plate, rhyming slang for ‘mate’.

1880 D. W. Barrett Life & Work among Navvies ii. 41 ‘Now, then, my china-plate...’ This is essentially a brick⁓layer's phrase. If for ‘china-plate’ you substitute ‘mate’,..the puzzle is revealed. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 53 China, or Old China: chum. 1945 Penguin New Writing XXV. 170 ‘Remember that China of his?’ ‘What, the bloke with the hair?’ 1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxxi. 304 My china's got something she wants to tell you. 1965 New Statesman 14 May 760/2, I have my hands full with his china who is a big geezer of about 14 stone.

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   Add: [I.] [2.] [b.] For ‘in names..products, etc.’ read: Special combinations (esp. in the names of natural products, etc.) and add: China syndrome, an imaginary sequence of events following the meltdown of a nuclear reactor, in which so much heat is generated that the core melts through its containment structure and deep into the earth.

1970 Esquire June 76/4 This ‘fast-breeder reactor’ required a large flow of coolant to keep control and prevent the ‘*China syndrome’ — a constant worry to technicians, for once she starts melting, she'll melt her way all the way down to China. 1986 Times 12 May 1/5 Mr. Velikhov's announcement gave no clear indication just how close the Chernobyl disaster came to creating the so-called ‘China Syndrome’.