sb. and a. Forms: see under II. [Not a native Chinese name, but found in Skr. 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 Eng. in Eden 1555.
(The origin of the name is still a matter of debate. See Babylonian & Or. Recd., I. Nos. 3 and 11.)]
I. 1. The country so called, in Asia.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 260. The great China whose kyng is thought … the greatest prince in the world.
† b. A Chinaman, a Chinese. Obs.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iv. I. ii. (1651), 644. How those witty China’s … should be so gulled.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., III. (1638), 338. The Chynaes are curious in novelties.
2. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib. Now generally superseded by CHINESE a., exc. where this would be ambiguous, as in China trade, trader, merchant, etc. See also 3 a.
1589. Hakluyt, Voy., 551, margin. China ships with one saile.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 28 Sept. I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink).
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., Table 441. Concerning the China Character.
1707. Floyer, Physic. Pulse-Watch, 344. His Knowledge in Anatomy was as imperfect as that of the old China Books.
1720. De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xiv. (1840), 245. We found the China traders.
1868. C. Collingwood (title), Rambles of a Naturalist on the shores and waters of the China sea.
b. in names of natural products, etc., as China-aster (see ASTER 3); China-crape, a kind of silk crape; China-goose, a variety of goose found in China in immense flocks during the winter, esp. near Canton; China-grass, Bœhmeria (Urtica) nivea, a small shrubby plant with broadly cordate leaves, native to China and Sumatra; also the strong fiber obtained from the inner bark of this shrub, used in the making of grass-cloth; China-ink = INDIAN-INK, a black pigment sold in bars and cakes, consisting generally of lamp-black and size (see also quots.); China-orange, the Sweet Orange of commerce (Citrus Aurantium), originally brought from China; China-pea, Caragana Chamlagu, a native of Siberia and the East; China-pink, Dianthus chinensis, a perennial flowering pink; China-rose, (a.) the Monthly Rose (Rosa indica) and the Red Rose (R. semperflorens) with their many varieties; (b.) Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis (N. O. Malvaceæ), a tree 20 to 30 feet high, with beautiful flowers of various colors; China-root (see CHINA2); China-tree, (U.S.) the AZEDARAC; China-ware, ware from China (see 3 a); China-wax, a white crystalline wax soluble in alcohol, the product of Coccus sinensis.
1602. Carew, Cornwall, 24 b. Cornwall hath Doues, Geese, *China geese.
1858. R. Hogg, Veg. Kingd., 673. The excellent fibre known as *China-grass.
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.
1877. Blackmore, Erema, I. xix. 237 (Hoppe). I had not one atom of Russian twist or dyed China-grass in my hair.
1782. Wilson, in Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 156. I pencilled the bottom of the hollows all over black with *China ink.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 776. It is said that the true China ink is made from the condensed smoke or soot of burned camphor.
1665–6. Pepys, Diary, 5 March. I … made them welcome with wine and *china oranges (now a great rarity).
1771. P. Parsons, Newmarket, II. 149–50. A hundred pounds to a China orange upon Eclipse.
1660. Act 12 Chas. II. (Tonnage & Poundage) Capravens, Cockared Caps, *China Pease, Citterns.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict., Double *China Rose, commonly call’d in the West-Indies, Martinico Rose.
1760. J. Lee., Botany (1776), App. 328/2 (Jod.). China Rose, Hibiscus.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. IV. (1863), 264. In the middle of a fine October, while the China-roses covered the walls.
1847. Longf., Ev., II. ii. 21. Shaded by *china-trees … Stood the houses of planters.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xxxviii. 246. The shadows of the graceful China trees lay minutely pencilled on the turf below.
II. China porcelain, China-ware, china.
[Throughout India, and the East generally, the Persian name [Persian] is widely diffused as chīnī, in the sense of ‘porcelain,’ ‘china-ware.’ From Indin this form and use of the word was prob. introduced in the 17th c. into England, whence the spellings 7 chiney, cheny, cheney, chenea, mod. dial. chaney, cheenie.]
3. A species of earthenware of a fine semi-transparent texture, originally manufactured in China, and first brought to Europe in the 16th c. by the Portuguese, who named it porcelain. Early in 18th c. it began to be manufactured in Europe.
a. 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.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 41. They [Bannayans] sell Callicoes, Cheney Sattin, Cheney ware, [etc.].
1699. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 553. The price of china ware in London is fallen 12s. in the pound.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1733), Postscr. xv. John came with his Constable’s Staff to … break the Esquire’s China Ware.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 125. His collection of China-ware [is] valuable and tasteful.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts & Manuf., 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.
b. china.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., lii. § 2. 206. A Present of certain very rich Pieces of China.
1679. Penn, Addr. Prot., I. 17. Massy Plate, Rich Chiny.
1685. Crowne, Sir Courtly Nice, I. 8. Women, like Cheney, shou’d be kept with care, One flaw debases her to common ware.
1694. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 281. Three trunks … in which were chenea and other fine things.
1735. Pope, Ep. Lady, 172. Mistress of herself, tho’ China fall.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No. 200. Calling for his Dresden China.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Old China. I have an almost feminine partiality for old china.
1884. Miss Braddon, Ishmael, III. i. 21. A tea table with Queen Anne urn and old English china.
4. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attrib. Of china, made of china or porcelain.
[In the earliest quotations China prob. often bears sense 1, the transition being gradual.]
1579. Drake’s Voy., in Hakluyt (1600), III. 736. Fine China-dishes of white earth, and great store of China-silks.
1598. Florio, Porcellana … whereof they make China dishes, called Porcellan dishes.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. i. 97. They are not China-dishes, but very good dishes.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. v. § 7. We are not throughly resolved concerning Porcellane or China dishes, that according to common belief they are made of Earth.
1717. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., II. xliv. 19. The sherbet … was served in China bowls.
1834. L. Hunt’s London Jrnl., No. 22. 171/2. The chaney shepherds and shepherdesses on the mantelpiece.
1818. Hazlitt, Eng. Poets, iv. (1870), 95. The fall of a china-jar.
b. fig.
1884. Birrell, Obiter Dicta, 183. The mischief he will do to his neighbours’ china creeds and delicate porcelain opinions, is shocking to contemplate.
c. Comb., as china-blue, -fancier, -hunter, -oven, -shop; china-closet, a closet for china; china-glaze, a preparation for painting blue fret, composed of glass, lead, and blue calx; † china-house, a house where china-ware was exhibited (often alluded to as a house of assignation); china-man (see CHINAMAN 1); chine-paints, pigments specially prepared for use upon china; so china-painting; china-stone, a kind of talcose granite, the felspar of which has undergone partial decomposition, used for producing a glaze in the manufacture of porcelain; † china-tipper (see TIP); china-ware (see 3 a); † china-woman, a woman keeping a china-house or china-shop. Also china-like adj. See also CHINA-CLAY, -METAL.
1866. Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., I. ix. 94. Her eyes were soft, large, and *china-blue in colour.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., III. 348. Her *china-closet, cause of daily care.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Old China. When I go to visit any great houses, I enquire for the china-closet.
1878. Hallberger’s Illust. Mag., 1002/1 (Hoppe). To *china-fanciers he is known as the famous Maestro Giorgio of Gubbio.
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., I. iii. (1616), 536. To watch when ladies are gone to the *China houses, or the Exchange.
1730. J. Miller, Humours Oxford, II. For the evening, that noon of pleasure, operas, masquerade, assemblies, china-houses, play-houses.
1878. Hallberger’s Illust. Mag., 1000/2 (Hoppe). To the *china-hunter, every object in his cabinet or on his brackets is a trophy.
1868. Timbs, Eccentr. Anim. Creation, 299. Porcelain Crabs, with delicate, *china-like shells.
1881. Porcelain Works, Worcester, 26. A *china oven takes about forty hours to fire.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1733), Postscr. xi. How he set up a *China-Shop over-against Nic. Frog.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxii. Such a bull in a china-shop I never saw.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 776. No satisfactory explanation has yet been offered of the conditions which operate on the granite to produce the *China stone.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5900/4. Henry Ward … *China-Tipper, late of Little Old Bailey.
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., I. iv. His wife was the rich *China-woman that the courtiers visited so often.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 336, ¶ 3. I am, dear Sir, one of the top China-women about town … One … calls for a set of tea-dishes, another for a basin, a third for my best green tea.
III. 5. = CHEYNEY.
1790. A. Wilson, Poems, Groans fr. Loom. And then the last boon I’ll implore, Is to bless us with China so tight.
