porcelain

What it means

1. uncountableusuallyA hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figurative) such a material as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.

   Tableware and toilets are both made of porcelain.

   1 more 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.

   2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 136

2. uncountableusuallySynonym of china: porcelain tableware.

   He set the table with our porcelain and stemware.

   1 more example

   iij. potts of Erthe payntid, callyd Porseland.

   c. 1530, letter in Original Letters Illustrative of English History, Vol. II, p. 242

   Synonyms: china, chinaware

3. obsoleteuncountableSynonym of kaolin: the kind of clay traditionally used in China to manufacture porcelain.

   [...] that earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white,... wherof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed...

   1599, E. de Sande, translated by Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, 2nd edition, volume II, page 91

   Synonyms: kaolin

In a sentence

Tableware and toilets are both made of porcelain.

Where it comes from

1. Italianporcello“piglet”
2. Old Italianporcellana“cowrie; china, chinaware”
3. Middle Frenchporcelaine“cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware”
4. Englishporcelain

Borrowed from Middle French porcelaine (“cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware”), from Old Italian porcellana (“cowrie; china, chinaware”), from Italian porcello (“piglet”). 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.