Etymology: Not a Chinese name, but found in Sanskrit as Chīna about the Christian era, and in various modified forms employed by other Asiatic peoples. In Marco Polo Chin, in Barbosa (1516) and Garcia de Orta (1563) China. So in English in Eden 1555.
(The origin of the name is still a matter of debate. See Babylonian & Or. Recd. I. Nos. 3 and 11.)
1555 R. EdenDisc. Vyage rounde Worlde in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 230v The great China, whose kyng is thought..the greatest prince in the worlde.
II. Senses relating to china porcelain. China porcelain, China-ware, china.
[Throughout India, and the East generally, the Persian name is widely diffused as chīnī, in the sense of ‘porcelain’, ‘china-ware’. From India this form and use of the word was probably introduced in the 17th cent. into England, whence the spellings 17th cent. chiney, cheny, cheney, chenea, modern dialect chainy, chaney, chany, chaynee, chayney, cheenie, cheeny, and the fashionable pronunciation of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century,
Hear pronunciation/ˈtʃeɪnɪ/ (see Walker), which with
Hear pronunciation/ˈtʃiːnɪ/, still survives in the dialects.]
a. A species of earthenware of a fine semi-transparent texture, originally manufactured in China, and first brought to Europe in the 16th cent. by the Portuguese, who named it porcelain. Early in 18th cent. it began to be manufactured in Europe.China-ware (which naturally occurs earlier than china) had at first the literal sense of ‘ware from China’. This was soon shortened to china, and as the shortened form became gradually the common name of the material, ‘china-ware’ came to be regarded as ‘ware made of china or porcelain’, the sense it now bears.
1699 N. LuttrellDiary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) IV. 553 The price of china ware in London is fallen 12s. in the pound.
1727 J. ArbuthnotJohn Bull Postscr. in J. Swift et al. Misc. II. 212 John came with his Constable's Staff to..break the Esquires China-Ware.
1789 H. L. PiozziObserv. Journey France II. 125 His collection of China-ware [is] valuable and tasteful.
1875 R. Hunt & F. W. RudlerUre's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) III. 603 A fusible earthy mixture, along with an infusible, which, when combined, are susceptible of becoming semi-vitrified and translucent in the kiln..constitute true porcelain or china-ware.
1844 J. W. LoudonLadies' Compan. Flower Garden (ed. 3) 344Rosa indica (the common China); Rosa semperflorens (the monthly China).
1898 E. von ArnimElizabeth & her German Garden 17 I have misgivings as to the effect of the Persian Yellows among the Chinas, for the Chinas are such wee little baby things.
5. Short for china plate, rhyming slang for ‘mate’.
1880 D. W. BarrettLife & Work among Navvies ii. 41 ‘Now, then, my china-plate...’ This is essentially a brick~layer's phrase. If for ‘china-plate’ you substitute ‘mate’,..the puzzle is revealed.
a. Simple attributive. Now generally superseded by Chineseadj., exc. where this would be ambiguous, as in China trade, China trader, China merchant, etc. See also 2a.
China-grassn.Bœhmeria (Urtica) nivea, a small shrubby plant with broadly cordate leaves, native to China and Sumatra; also the strong fibre obtained from the inner bark of this shrub, used in the making of grass-cloth.
1858 R. HoggVeg. Kingdom 673 The excellent fibre known as China-grass.
1880 R. D. BlackmoreErema xix I had not one atom of Russian twist or dyed china-grass cloth in my hair.
1884 Weekly Scotsman 9 Feb. 1/7 The rhea, China grass, or ramie plant, as it is variously called, is said to possess the strongest fibre in nature.
China-inkn. = Indian inkn. a black pigment sold in bars and cakes, consisting generally of lamp-black and size (see also quots.).
1782 Wilson in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 73 156 I pencilled the bottom of the hollows all over black with China ink.
1875 R. Hunt & F. W. RudlerUre's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) I. 776 It is said that the true China ink is made from the condensed smoke or soot of burned camphor.
China-orangen. the Sweet Orange of commerce ( Citrus Aurantium), originally brought from China; frequently taken as a typical object of trifling value.
1666 S. PepysDiary 5 Mar. (1972) VII. 67 I..made them welcome with wine and China oranges (now a great rarity).
1771 P. ParsonsNewmarket II. 149 A hundred pounds to a China orange upon Eclipse.
1819 T. MooreTom Crib's Memorial to Congress (ed. 3) 38 All Lombard-street to nine-pence on it. Note, More usually ‘Lombard-street to a China orange’.
1849 E. Bulwer-LyttonCaxtons I. iv. iii. 167 ‘It is Lombard Street to a China orange,’ quoth Uncle Jack. ‘Are the odds in favour of fame against failure so great?’..answered my father.
China-rosen.(a) the Monthly Rose ( Rosa indica) and the Red Rose ( R. semperflorens) with their many varieties;(b) Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis (family Malvaceæ), a tree 20 to 30 feet high, with beautiful flowers of various colours.
1731 P. MillerGardeners Dict. I Double China Rose, commonly called in the West Indies, Martinico Rose.
1760 J. LeeIntrod. Bot. App. 298/2China Rose, Hibiscus.
1830 M. R. MitfordOur Village IV. 244 In the middle of a fine October, while the China-roses covered the walls.
China snoekn.South African a small immature specimen of the snoek fish Thyrsites atun (see quot. 1957).
1950 Cape Argus 28 Oct. (Mag.) 3/6China snoek..have thicker bodies and shorter heads than the large snoek. The scientists refuse to recognize the China snoek as a different species.
1957 S. SchoemanStrike! 117 The so-called ‘China snoek’, those undersized snoek which are found in Table Bay docks during August to October and in False Bay during November–January.
China tean. a type of tea prepared from a small-leaved variety of tea plant ( Camellia sinensis variant sinensis) grown chiefly in S. China and differing from other kinds of tea chiefly in that it is cured with smoke.
1811 J. AustenLet. 31 May (1995) 191 We began our China Tea three days ago.
1920 J. M. BarrieKiss for Cinderellaiii. 130 You'll have a cup of China tea and some of this cake?
1646 Sir T. BrownePseudodoxia Epidemicaii. v. §7 We are not throughly resolved concerning Porcellane or China dishes, that according to common belief they are made of Earth.
1718 Lady M. W. MontaguLet. 10 Mar. (1965) I. 383 The Sherbet..was serv'd in China Bowls.
18.. L. HuntCountry Lodging The chaney shepherds and shepherdesses on the mantelpiece.
1884 R. HollandGloss. Words County of Chester (1886) 60 Thy uncle and aunts' comin to tay this afternoon, Mary; tha'd better get th' chainy cups and saucers ait.
1616 T. RoeLet. 14 Feb. in Embassy to Great Mogul (1899) I. 134 I thought all India a China shop, and that I should furnish all my Frendes with rarietyes.
1727 J. ArbuthnotJohn Bull Postscr. in J. Swift et al. Misc. II. 211 How he set up a China-shop over-against Nic. Frog.
1847 W. M. ThackerayVanity Fair (1848) xxxii. 287 Such a bull in a china-shopI never saw.
1928 F. T. BartonKennel Encycl. 372 Wall eye..is applied to one or both eyes..in which the iris or the irises is destitute of its usual pigmentation, giving the eye a light colour—China eye.
1964 F. O'RourkeMule for Marquesa (1967) vi. 80 He turned and his right eye rolled, the china eye, white-marbled and yellow-veined, the birthmark, the trademark of the man.
1901 W. F. KirbyButterflies & Moths 112China Marks..are moths rarely exceeding an inch in expanse.
1959 J. CleggFreshwater Life Brit. Isles (ed. 2) xiv. 213 They are commonly called the China Mark Moths from the fancied resemblance of the markings on the wings of some of them to the potters' marks inscribed on the bottom of good china.
1868 L. Jewitt in Art Jrnl. 282/1 The issuing of ‘chainé money’, i.e., tokens representing different values of money, made of china... They were called ‘Mr. Cokes' coin’, or ‘chainé money’ (china money), in the provincialism of the locality.
china-stonen. a kind of talcose granite, the felspar of which has undergone partial decomposition, used for producing a glaze in the manufacture of porcelain.
1875 R. Hunt & F. W. RudlerUre's Dict. Arts (ed. 7) I. 776 No satisfactory explanation has yet been offered of the conditions which operate on the granite to produce the China stone.
china tokenn. a token of porcelain or earthenware used in porcelain and pottery works.
1878 L. JewittCeramic Art II. 141 One peculiarity connected with the Pinxton China Works..is the issuing of china tokens, i.e., tokens representing different values of money, made of china, and payable as money among the workpeople and others, including shopkeepers.
1888 Girl's Own Paper 24 Mar. 407/2 In America..is the ‘crystal-wedding’, which is kept after fifteen years of married life... Then, too, there is the ‘china-wedding’, which is observed five years later.
China syndromen. an imaginary sequence of events following the meltdown of a nuclear reactor, in which so much heat is generated that the core melts through its containment structure and deep into the earth.
1970 Esquire June 76/4 This ‘fast-breeder reactor’ required a large flow of coolant to keep control and prevent the ‘China syndrome’ — a constant worry to technicians, for once she starts melting, she'll melt her way all the way down to China.
1986 Times 12 May 1/5 Mr. Velikhov's announcement gave no clear indication just how close the Chernobyl disaster came to creating the so-called ‘China Syndrome’.
