porcelain means A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as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. It carries an Arena rating of 1484, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, porcelain ranks #2,357 of 14,297 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,374 of 14,451 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,382 of 14,414 for Most Elegant Words, #2,592 of 14,423 for Most Sublime Words.
porcelain is pronounced /ˈpɔːsəlɪn/.
Why “porcelain” is a great word
A hard, white, translucent ceramic, traditionally made from kaolin, quartz, and feldspar. From Middle French porcelaine ('cowrie shell; chinaware'), from Old Italian porcellana ('cowrie shell; chinaware'), from porcella ('young sow, female piglet') + -ana (suffix forming nouns); the ceramic was named for its resemblance to the smooth surface of a cowrie shell, which itself was named with a word for a piglet for unclear reasons. Unlike 'pottery'—the broad, earthy family of fired clay, porous and opaque—or 'bone china'—a specific, ashen-blend prized for its chip-resistance—porcelain is the aristocrat of vitrification. It is the ghostly ring of a struck cup in a quiet room, the cold, flawless curve of a vase holding nothing but shadow, and the way a teacup, held to a window, reveals the world as a softened, golden blur—a testament to the human desire to imprison translucence in a permanent, fragile form.
Etymology
From Middle French porcelaine (“cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware”), from Old Italian porcellana (“cowrie; china, chinaware”), from porcella (“female piglet”) + -ana. 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.
noun
- A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as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.“Tableware and toilets are both made of porcelain.”
- Synonym of china: porcelain tableware.“iij. potts of Erthe payntid, callyd Porseland.”
- Synonym of kaolin: the kind of clay traditionally used in China to manufacture porcelain.“[...] that earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white,... wherof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed...”
- An object made of porcelain, (particularly) art objects or items of tableware.“The museum has an extensive collection of rare Chinese porcelains.”
- Synonym of cowrie.“In the kingdomes of Caiacan and Carazan, certaine sea shels are currant, which some men terme Porcelline.”
- Synonym of wampum: strings of shells, beads, etc. used as ornamentation or currency; the composite shells, beads, etc.“We mett severall gangs of men to our greatest disadvantage, ffor we weare forced to sing, and those that came to see us gave porcelaine to those that most did us injury.”
- A kind of pigeon with deep brown and off-white feathers.“Those pretty spangled Toys [...] known by various names, as Porcelains, Hyacinths, Ermines, &c.”
- The set of Git commands, such as {{#tag:syntaxhighlight|git commit|inline="True"|lang="text"|style="white-space:pre-wrap;"}} or {{#tag:syntaxhighlight|git checkout|inline="True"|lang="text"|style="white-space:pre-wrap;"}}, which control the high-level state of the repository, each typically combining the behaviour of multiple plumbing commands.“Coordinate term: plumbing”
verb
- To coat with a porcelain enamel.
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