noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
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"Tableware and toilets are both made of porcelain."
"iij. potts of Erthe payntid, callyd Porseland."
"[...] that earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white,... wherof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed..."
"The museum has an extensive collection of rare Chinese porcelains."
"In the kingdomes of Caiacan and Carazan, certaine sea shels are currant, which some men terme Porcelline."
"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."
"Those pretty spangled Toys [...] known by various names, as Porcelains, Hyacinths, Ermines, &c."
"Nowadays, almost everyone has a modern bean-to-cup coffee maker, but we are still using a porcelain coffee filter."
A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as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.
Common synonyms include: adobe, alabaster, biscuit, bisque, blanc, bowl.
Nowadays, almost everyone has a modern bean-to-cup coffee maker, but we are still using a porcelain coffee filter.
Pronounced /ˈpɔːsəlɪn/.
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.