Word: porcelain Part of Speech: noun 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. Pronunciation: /ˈpɔːsəlɪn/, /ˈpɔɹs(ə)lɪn/, /ˈpɔɹs(ə)lən/, /ˈpoːs(ɘ)lɘn/ 1. A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as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. Labels: uncountable, usually Example: Tableware and toilets are both made of porcelain. Example: Any power rail needs to be well insulated from earth, to minimise current leakage, and so the two power rails on the Underground sit on curiously genteel and antique-looking porcelain pots. 2. Synonym of china: porcelain tableware. Labels: uncountable, usually Example: iij. potts of Erthe payntid, callyd Porseland. Example: He set the table with our porcelain and stemware. 3. Synonym of kaolin: the kind of clay traditionally used in China to manufacture porcelain. Labels: obsolete, uncountable Example: [...] that earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white,... wherof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed... 4. An object made of porcelain, (particularly) art objects or items of tableware. Labels: countable, plural-normally Example: The museum has an extensive collection of rare Chinese porcelains. 5. Synonym of cowrie. Labels: countable, rare Example: In the kingdomes of Caiacan and Carazan, certaine sea shels are currant, which some men terme Porcelline. 6. Synonym of wampum: strings of shells, beads, etc. used as ornamentation or currency; the composite shells, beads, etc. Labels: countable, historical, obsolete Example: 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. 7. A kind of pigeon with deep brown and off-white feathers. Labels: capitalized, countable, often Example: Those pretty spangled Toys [...] known by various names, as Porcelains, Hyacinths, Ermines, &c. 8. 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. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Coordinate term: plumbing Example: The {{#tag:syntaxhighlight|git(1)|inline="True"|lang="text"|style="white-space:pre-wrap;"}} manpage includes a list of all the Git commands separated into porcelain and plumbing. The distinction between plumbing and porcelain commands was mentioned as a tip in Chapter 4, Managing Your Worktree, when we encountered the first low-level plumbing command without a user-facing and user-friendly porcelain equivalent.