china

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtʃaɪ.nə/^[1]

Etymology

It is a borrowing of Persian chīnī “Chinese porcelain”,^[2][3][4] altered under the influence of the country name China.^[5][6] Etymonline, Hoad and Klein treat it instead as a shortening of China ware, “ware from China”.^[7][8][9] The American Heritage Dictionary notes that 16th- and 17th-century spellings such as chiney, cheny and cheney reflect the Persian word, and that both it and Sanskrit cīnāḥ “the Chinese”, the source of the country name, go back to Chinese 秦 (Qín), the dynasty that ruled China from 221 to 206 BC.^[10] The SOED says that the origin of the country name is unknown and that it is not native Chinese.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the compound China dishes: 1579, in Hakluyt's account of Drake's voyages,^[2][3] or the 1570s.^[7] The porcelain was originally made in China and brought to Europe by the Portuguese in the 16th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

China-ware is from 1634^[11] or the 1630s,^[7] and china alone from 1653^[11][2] or the 1650s.^[7] It came to be used of porcelain and porcelain ware generally,^[7] and of tableware of earthenware as well.^[12] English dialect forms include chainy and cheeny, from 1823.^[11] China shop is from 1750,^[7] hence a bull in a china shop.^[1] Something delicate or fragile is china figuratively from 1858,^[13] and the twentieth wedding anniversary is the china anniversary, originally American, from 1863.^[13]

Timeline

• 1579 – China dishes (Hakluyt).^[2]
• 1634 – China-ware.^[11]
• 1653 – china.^[11][2]
• 1750 – china shop.^[7]
• 1823 – dialect chainy.^[11]
• 1863 – the china wedding anniversary.^[13]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. High-quality porcelain or ceramic ware, originally made in China.
2. Porcelain or earthenware dishes for the table; crockery.

Adjective

1. Made of china.

Word family

• bone china
• china blue
• china clay

Related words

• China
• Chinese
• porcelain
• Sino-

Usage notes

The country is China, with a capital letter.^[7][6] The OED records an unrelated China root, the root of a climbing plant of the genus Smilax used in medicine, from 1563.^[11] In Cockney rhyming slang china, “mate”, is perhaps short for china plate.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
13. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)