porcelain
por·ce·lain
noun
1.
ceramic ware made of a more or less translucent ceramic
Origin
Borrowed from Middle French porcelaine (“cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware”), from Old Italian porcellana (“cowrie; china, chinaware”), from Italian porcello (“piglet”). The material was so called because of its resemblance to the shell of the cowrie. Why the cowrie was named with a word meaning “piglet” is unclear.
Phrases
- bow down before the porcelain god
- Chantilly porcelain
- drive the porcelain bus
- ivory porcelain
- Plymouth porcelain
- point Percy at the porcelain
- porcelain aorta
- porcelain blue
Related words
Word family
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.