china

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See also: China and čhína

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From clippings of attributive use of China, q.v., the country in East Asia. In reference to porcelain and porcelain objects, via clipping of china-ware and via this sense of Persian چین (chīnī) in Persia and India, the latter of which formerly led to the upper-class British pronunciation /ˈtʃeɪnɪ/ and dialectical British pronunciation /ˈtʃiːnɪ/. In reference to medicine, via clipping of China root. In reference to flowers, via clipping of China rose. In reference to tea, via clipping of China tea. In Cockney slang, a clipping of china plate as a rhyme of mate (“friend”). In reference to drum cymbals, a clipping of China cymbal and as a genericization of a kind of Zildjian-brand cymbal.

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL. IPA(key): /tʃʌɪnə/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪnə

Noun

china (countable and uncountable, plural chinas)

  1. (uncountable) Synonym of porcelain, a hard white translucent ceramic made from kaolin, now (chiefly US) sometimes distinguished in reference to tableware as fine or good china.
    It's a china doll.
  2. (uncountable) Chinaware: porcelain tableware.
    • 1634, Thomas Herbert, A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, p. 41:
      They sell Callicoes, Cheney Sattin, Cheney ware.
    • 1653, Henry Cogan translating Fernão Mendes Pinto as The Voyages and Adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto, p. 206:
      ...a Present of certain very rich Pieces of China.
    He set the table with china, cloth napkins, and crystal stemware.
    The traditional 20th anniversary gift is china.
  3. (uncountable, chiefly US, dated) Cheaper and lower-quality ceramic and ceramic tableware, distinguished from porcelain.
    • 1921 May 11, "Edison Questions Stir Up a Storm", New York Times:
      What is porcelain? A fine earthenware differing from china in being harder, whiter, harder to fuse and more translucent than ordinary pottery.
  4. (uncountable) Synonym of China root, the root of Smilax china (particularly) as a medicine.
    • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection v:
      China, saith Manardus, makes a good colour in the face, takes away melancholy, and all infirmities proceeding from cold […].
  5. (uncountable, obsolete) Synonym of cheyney: worsted or woolen stuff.
    • 1790, Alexander Wilson, Poems, p. 55:
      ...And then the last boon I'll implore,
      Is to bless us with China so tight...
  6. (countable) Synonym of China rose, in its various senses.
    • 1844, Jane Loudon, The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden, 3rd ed., p. 344:
      Rosa indica (the common China); Rosa semperflorens (the monthly China).
  7. (countable, Cockney rhyming slang, Australia, South Africa) Synonym of friend.
    • 1880, Daniel William Barrett, Life and Work among the Navvies, 2nd ed., p. 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.
    • 1925, Edward Fraser & al., Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases, p. 53:
      China, or Old China: chum.
    All right, me old china?
  8. (uncountable, dated) Tea from China, (particularly) varieties cured by smoking or opposed to Indian cultivars.
    • 1907, Yesterday's Shopping, p. 1:
      Tea... Finest China, Plain (Moning).
  9. (countable, games, chiefly US, obsolete) A glazed china marble.
    • 1932 March, Dan Beard, "New-Fashioned Kites and Old-Fashioned Marbles", Boy's Life, p. 27:
      The marbles, in those days, had their primitive names. The unglazed china ones were called plasters because they looked like plaster; the glazed china marbles were called chinas. I remember how charming were the partly colored lines which encircled them.
  10. (countable, music) A kind of drum cymbal approximating a Chinese style of cymbal, but usually with Turkish influences.
    • 2010, Carmine Appice, Drums for Everyone, p. 78:
      China cymbals are a type of short sound cymbal. [Brand X] makes chinas with really short sounds.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

French

Verb

china

  1. third-person singular past historic of chiner

Anagrams

Italian

Etymology 1

Adjective form.

Adjective

Template:it-adj-form

  1. (deprecated template usage) Feminine singular of adjective chino.

Etymology 2

From the verb chinare.

Noun

china f (plural chine)

  1. slope, decline, descent
    Synonyms: pendio, declivio, discesa
Related terms

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Spanish quina, quinaquina, from Quechua.

Noun

china f (plural chine)

  1. cinchona (tree)
Related terms

Etymology 4

From Portuguese China, namely "ink of China".

Noun

china f (plural chine)

  1. Indian ink

Etymology 5

Verb form.

Verb

china

  1. third-person singular present of chinare
  2. second-person singular imperative of chinare

Japanese

Romanization

china

  1. Rōmaji transcription of ちな

Kalasha

Adjective

china

  1. Alternative spelling of čhína

Portuguese

Pronunciation

  • Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "Brazil" is not valid. See WT:LOL. IPA(key): /ˈʃi.nɐ/
  • Homophone: China

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Spanish china, from Quechua china (“female”).

Noun

china f (plural chinas)

  1. (Rio Grande do Sul) a woman, especially one of Native American descent

Etymology 2

From China.

Noun

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  1. (dated or informal) Chinaman; Chinese; someone from China
    Synonym: chinês

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈt͡ʃina/ [ˈt͡ʃi.na]

Etymology 1

From the infantile/nursery word chin, a children's guessing game.[1][2]

Noun

china f (plural chinas)

  1. Pebble, small stone usually rounded
  2. (Venezuela) slingshot
Derived terms
Related terms

Etymology 2

Adjective

china

  1. (deprecated template usage) Feminine singular of adjective chino.

Noun

china f (plural chinas, masculine chino, masculine plural chinos)

  1. A Chinese woman.

See also

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Quechua china (“female”).

Noun

china f (plural chinas)

  1. (derogatory, South America) female servant in a hacienda.

Etymology 4

Allusion to the orange fruit's Asian origin (as in sinensis in Citrus sinensis).

Noun

china f (plural chinas)

  1. (Puerto Rico) orange (fruit)

References

  1. ^ “china”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
  2. ^ Roberts, Edward A. (2014) A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN
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