Where does “porcelain” come from?
Porcelain comes from Old Italian porcellana, a term of uncertain ultimate origin whose meaning in the source language is not established.
porcelain (English): A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made...
Definitions
- A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made...
Ancestry of “porcelain”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | porcelaine | cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware |
| 2 | Old French | pourcelaine | Cowrie, cockle, or similar univalve shell; The... |
| 3 | Italian | porcellana | porcelain, china; third-person singular present... |
| 4 | Italian | porcella | female equivalent of porcello; slut, bitch, goer |
| 5 | Italian | porca | the ridge between two furrows; balk; sow; A... |
| 6 | Latin | porca | sow; the ridge between two furrows; a balk |
| 7 | Esperanto | porka | porcine |
| 8 | Esperanto | porko | pig |
| 9 | Latin | porcus | a piglet, a young pig; a pig, hog; Short for... |
| 10 | Proto-Italic | porkos | pig |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | pórḱos | piglet |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | perḱ- | colored; motley; to open, rip up |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | per- | before, in front; first; to go through |
| 14 | Proto-Indo-European | pr̥tós | passed , crossed |