Etymology

petunse

P3E1T1U1N1S1E1

Today it means: Rock rich in feldspar and/or mica, mixed with kaolin to create hard-paste pottery. Full definition →

First used 1727French petunse ← Chinese 白墩子
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The story

  1. Chinese · derived from白墩子“white lump”
  2. French · borrowed frompetunse
  3. English todaypetunse

From French petunse, pe-tun-tse, from F.X. d'Entrecolles's 1712 irregular romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 白墩子 (“white lump”), formerly used to describe the bricks transported from Qimen, Anhui, to Jingdezhen, Jiangxi.

First known use, by meaning

  • 1727 Rock rich in feldspar and/or mica, mixed with kaolin to create hard-paste pottery.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.