porcelain

• n. 磁器; 陶磁器
• adj.磁器; 上質な

中フランス語のprocelaineから、イタリア語のporcellana（貝、磁器）から、その光沢が似ていることから名付けられた。ラテン語のporcellus（子豚、語源的には豚肉と同じ）、-elle（小語の接尾辞）から。貝殻の気孔が雌豚の膣口に似ていることからこの名がついたと言われている。

porcelain

porcelain: [16] The bizarre history of the word porcelain leads us back to a pig’s vagina. It was originally applied to fine china in Italian, as porcellana. This meant literally ‘cowrie shell’, and was used for the china in allusion to its shelllike sheen. Porcellana was a derivative of porcella ‘little sow’, a diminutive form of porca ‘sow’ (to which English pork is related), and was applied to cowrie shells because they supposedly resembled the external genitalia of female pigs. English acquired the word via French porcelaine.
=> pork

porcelain (n.)

1530s, from Middle French porcelaine and directly from Italian porcellana "porcelain" (13c.), literally "cowrie shell," the chinaware so called from resemblance of its lustrous transparency to the shiny surface of the shells. The shell's name in Italian is from porcella "young sow," fem. of Latin porcellus "young pig," diminutive of porculus "piglet," diminutive of porcus "pig" (see pork (n.)). According to an old theory, the connection of the shell and the pig is a perceived resemblance of the shell opening to the exposed outer genitalia of pigs.

porcelain is china & china is p.; there is no recondite difference between the two things, which indeed are not two, but one; & the difference between the two words is merely that china is the homely term, while porcelain is exotic & literary. [Fowler]

1. Place them in a jam jar， porcelain bowl，or other similar container.

ジャム缶、磁器ボウルなどの容器に入れます。

2.There were lilies every-where in tall white porcelain vases.

高さの白い磁器瓶にユリの花が描かれている。

3.Arlott squirrelled away books,pictures and porcelain plates.

アローは本、写真、磁器皿を隠した。

4.a dainty porcelain cup

小さくて精巧な磁器カップ

5.These porcelain plates have rather original designs on them.

これらの磁器皿の模様はとてもユニークです。