If you don’t mind my asking, what part of the world are you from? Here in the US it’s ubiquitous to refer to the nice porcelain plates as china, or fine china (culturally its commonly thought of as something your grandma has, either for special occasions or decoration, but that you never actually eat off of them, something younger folks might occasionally poke fun at)
Being from the US I took for granted that’s a common meaning for the term, and it’s always cool to learn about how language varies from one area to another!
From Wikipedia:
Porcelain (/ˈpɔːrs(ə)lɪn/), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between 1,200 and 1,400 °C (2,200 and 2,600 °F). The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arise mainly from vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at these high temperatures.
…
Porcelain is also referred to as “china” or fine china in some English-speaking countries, as it was first seen in imports from China during the 17th century
From Mariam Webster:
China:
porcelain also : vitreous porcelain wares (such as dishes, vases, or ornaments) for domestic use
earthenware or porcelain tableware
“Bone china” is also the name for a specific type of porcelain made with bone ash, but that type originates from Britain as a way of competing with imported porcelain. Nifty that you can see Britain’s historical usage of “china” to refer to porcelain reflected in the way they named the type of porcelain they concieved!
I wonder if it was already ubiquitous there and the name is a reflection of that, or if maybe folks at the time used both, and someone’s choice to name bone china as they did could have solidified “china”'s usage in that way in parts of the English speaking world. The former seems like a simpler explanation but it’s fun to think about :)
If you don’t mind my asking, what part of the world are you from? Here in the US it’s ubiquitous to refer to the nice porcelain plates as china, or fine china (culturally its commonly thought of as something your grandma has, either for special occasions or decoration, but that you never actually eat off of them, something younger folks might occasionally poke fun at)
Being from the US I took for granted that’s a common meaning for the term, and it’s always cool to learn about how language varies from one area to another!
From Wikipedia:
From Mariam Webster:
“Bone china” is also the name for a specific type of porcelain made with bone ash, but that type originates from Britain as a way of competing with imported porcelain. Nifty that you can see Britain’s historical usage of “china” to refer to porcelain reflected in the way they named the type of porcelain they concieved!
I wonder if it was already ubiquitous there and the name is a reflection of that, or if maybe folks at the time used both, and someone’s choice to name bone china as they did could have solidified “china”'s usage in that way in parts of the English speaking world. The former seems like a simpler explanation but it’s fun to think about :)
Hey, thank you so much for all these details !
I come from Europe, in the general area around Limoges, France, where they had a pretty big Porcelain industry towards the late 18th century, I tried to find an article in English about it https://www.bbc.com/storyworks/stories-of-craft/the-storied-past-and-present-of-limoges-porcelain
Interesting, thank you so much for sharing!
Sending love from across the ocean my friend, take care! 😊