porcelain
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
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.
Base: porcella
Affixes: -ano
Inflected forms:
form: porcelains
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: porcelains
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: porcelaining
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: porcelained
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: porcelained
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as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.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: Tableware and toilets are both made of porcelain.
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.
gloss: Synonym of china: porcelain tableware.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
usually
examples: iij. potts of Erthe payntid, callyd Porseland.
He set the table with our porcelain and stemware.
gloss: Synonym of kaolin: the kind of clay traditionally used in China to manufacture porcelain.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
uncountable
examples: [...] that earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white,... wherof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed...
gloss: An object made of porcelain, (particularly) art objects or items of tableware.
pos: noun
tags: countable
plural-normally
examples: The museum has an extensive collection of rare Chinese porcelains.
gloss: Synonym of cowrie.
pos: noun
tags: countable
rare
examples: In the kingdomes of Caiacan and Carazan, certaine sea shels are currant, which some men terme Porcelline.
gloss: Synonym of wampum: strings of shells, beads, etc. used as ornamentation or currency; the composite shells, beads, etc.
pos: noun
tags: countable
historical
obsolete
examples: 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.
gloss: A kind of pigeon with deep brown and off-white feathers.
pos: noun
tags: capitalized
countable
often
examples: Those pretty spangled Toys [...] known by various names, as Porcelains, Hyacinths, Ermines, &c.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Coordinate term: plumbing
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.
gloss: To coat with a porcelain enamel.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
Derived words: bow down before the porcelain god
Chantilly porcelain
drive the porcelain bus
ivory porcelain
Plymouth porcelain
point Percy at the porcelain
porcelain aorta
porcelainberry
porcelain blue
porcelain bus
porcelain cement
porcelain clay
porcelain color
porcelain crab
porcelain doll
porcelain earth
porcelain god
porcelain goddess
porcelain grain
porcelainist
porcelainite
porcelainize
porcelain jasper
porcelain kiln
porcelain lace
porcelainlike
porcelain-maker
porcelain-making
porcelain oven
porcelain paper
porcelain printing
porcelain shell
porcelain skin
porcelain spar
porcelain-tinted
porcelain tooth
porcelain ware
porcelainware
porcelain-white
porcelaneous
pray to the porcelain god
pray to the porcelain goddess
protoporcelain
semiporcelain
tender porcelain
worship the porcelain god
worship the porcelain goddess
Translations: