PORCELAIN

porcelain

(noun) ceramic ware made of a more or less translucent ceramic

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

porcelain (countable and uncountable, plural porcelains)

(usually, uncountable) A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as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: porcelain tableware.

(uncountable, obsolete) synonym of kaolin: the kind of clay traditionally used in China to manufacture porcelain.

(countable, now usually plural) An object made of porcelain, (particularly) art objects or items of tableware.

(countable, now rare) synonym of cowrie.

(countable, obsolete or historic) synonym of 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.

Hypernyms

• material ceramic, earthenware

Hyponyms

• hard-paste, soft-paste / softpaste

Synonyms

• (all senses): china

• (porcelain tableware): chinaware

Source: Wiktionary


Por"ce*lain, n. (Bot.)

Definition: Purslain. [Obs.]

Por"ce*lain (277), n. Etym: [F. porcelaine, It. porcellana, orig., the porcelain shell, or Venus shell (Cypræa porcellana), from a dim. fr. L. porcus pig, probably from the resemblance of the shell in shape to a pig's back. Porcelain was called after this shell, either on account of its smoothness and whiteness, or because it was believed to be made from it. See Pork.]

Definition: A fine translucent or semitransculent kind of earthenware, made first in China and Japan, but now also in Europe and America; -- called also China, or China ware. Porcelain, by being pure, is apt to break. Dryden. Ivory porcelain, porcelain with a surface like ivory, produced by depolishing. See Depolishing.

– Porcelain clay. See under Clay.

– Porcelain crab (Zoöl.), any crab of the genus Porcellana and allied genera (family Porcellanidæ). They have a smooth, polished carapace.

– Porcelain jasper. (Min.) See Porcelanite.

– Porcelain printing, the transferring of an impression of an engraving to porcelain.

– Porcelain shell (Zoöl.), a cowry.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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26 November 2024

TRANSPOSITION

(noun) (music) playing in a different key from the key intended; moving the pitch of a piece of music upwards or downwards


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The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

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