ceramic

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κεραμικός (keramikós, “of pottery”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from κέραμος (kéramos, “potter's clay, pottery, earthen vessel”),^[2][5][7] first spelled keramic after the Greek;^[4][5] the spelling with c was influenced by céramique, recorded from 1806.^[4][5][6] The origin of the Greek noun is uncertain: Watkins connected it with cremō (“to burn”),^[3][5] but Klein rejects this and takes it from a language of Asia Minor,^[7][8] and Beekes thinks it may be Pre-Greek or Anatolian.^[5] Skeat compared κεράννυμι (keránnumi, “to mix”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to pottery: the OED's first example is from 1841, in the Sun newspaper;^[2] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date the form keramic to 1850.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The plural ceramics, the art of making pottery, is recorded from 1857 in Etymonline, or 1859 in the OED and Barnhart,^[5][2][4] and ceramist from 1855.^[5] The noun ceramic for an object made of fired clay appears in 1880, in Mark Twain's A Tramp Abroad,^[2] and soon also as a mass noun for the material.^[2][10] In the 20th century the word widened from pottery to any hard, heat-resistant material made by firing a non-metallic mineral, such as brick, tile, glass, enamel and cement.^[6][11]

Timeline

• 1841 – of pottery.^[2]
• 1850 – the form keramic.^[4][5][6]
• 1855 – ceramist.^[5]
• 1859 – ceramics, the art of pottery.^[2][4]
• 1880 – an object of fired clay.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Made of clay or a similar material that has been hardened by firing at a high temperature: a ceramic bowl.
2. Relating to pottery or to the making of objects from clay.

Noun

1. A hard, brittle material made by firing clay or a similar substance.
2. An object made of such material.
3. ceramics: the art or industry of making such objects.

Word family

• aceramic
• ceramist
• ceramal
• cermet

Related words

• ceramics
• pottery
• porcelain

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins