different between enamel vs porcelain

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??næm?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??næm?l/
• Rhymes: -æm?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English enamel, from Anglo-Norman enamailler, from en- (“in-”) + amailler (“to enamel”), variant of Old French esmailler (“to enamel”), from esmal (“enamel”), from Frankish *smalt, from Proto-Germanic *smaltijan? (“to smelt”). Compare German schmelzen, Danish smelte (“to melt”).

Noun

enamel (countable and uncountable, plural enamels)

1. An opaque, glassy coating baked onto metal or ceramic objects.
2. A coating that dries to a hard, glossy finish.
3. The hard covering on the exposed part of a tooth.
4. A cosmetic intended to give the appearance of a smooth and beautiful complexion.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English enamelen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

enamel (third-person singular simple present enamels, present participle (US) enameling or (UK) enamelling, simple past and past participle (US) enameled or (UK) enamelled)

1. (transitive) To coat or decorate with enamel.
2. (transitive) To variegate with colours, as if with enamel.
3. (transitive) To form a glossy surface like enamel upon.

4. (transitive) To disguise with cosmetics, as a woman's complexion.

Derived terms

• enamelware
• porcelain enamel
• vitreous enamel

Translations

Anagrams

• Leeman, Manele, Melena, manele, melena

English

Etymology

From Middle French porcelaine (“cowrie, wampum; china, chinaware”), from Old Italian porcellana (“cowrie; china, chinaware”), from porcella (“mussel or cockle shell used to hold pigments while painting”) from porco (“pig”) with -ella (suffix forming diminutives).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p??s?l?n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p??s?l?n/, /?p??sl?n/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /?po?sl?n/
• Hyphenation: por?ce?lain, porc?lain

Noun

porcelain (countable and uncountable, plural porcelains)

1. (usually uncountable) A hard white translucent ceramic, originally made by firing kaolin, quartz, and feldspar at high temperatures but now also inclusive of similar artificial materials; also often (figuratively) such a material as a symbol of the fragility, elegance, etc. traditionally associated with porcelain goods.
2. (usually uncountable) Synonym of china: porcelain tableware.
   • c. 1530, letter in Original Letters Illustrative of English History, Vol. II, p. 242:

     iij. potts of Erthe payntid, callyd Porseland.

3. (uncountable, obsolete) Synonym of kaolin: the kind of clay traditionally used in China to manufacture porcelain.
   • 1599, Richard Hakluyt translating E. de Sande in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, 2nd ed., Vol. II, p. 91:

     [...] that earthen or pliable matter commonly called porcellan, which is pure white,... wherof vessels of all kinds are very curiously framed...

4. (countable, now usually in the plural) An object made of porcelain, (particularly) art objects or items of tableware.

5. (countable, rare) Synonym of cowrie.
   • 1601, Robert Johnson translating Giovanni Botero as The Trauellers Breuiat, or, An Historicall Description of the Most Famous Kingdomes in the World, p. 104:

     In the kingdomes of Caiacan and Carazan, certaine sea shels are currant, which some men terme Porcelline.

6. (countable, obsolete or historical) Synonym of wampum: strings of shells, beads, etc. used as ornamentation or currency; the composite shells, beads, etc.
   • c. 1665, Pierre Esprit de Radisson, Voyages (1885 ed.), p. 49:

     We mett severall gangs of men to our greatest disadvantage, ffor we weare forced to sing, and those that came to see us gave porcelaine to those that most did us injury.

7. (countable, often capitalized) A kind of pigeon with deep brown and off-white feathers.
   • 1855, The Poultry Chronicle, No. 3, p. 9:

     Those pretty spangled Toys [...] known by various names, as Porcelains, Hyacinths, Ermines, &c.

Hypernyms

• material ceramic, earthenware

Hyponyms

• hard-paste, soft-paste / softpaste

Synonyms

• (all senses): china
• (porcelain tableware): chinaware

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “porcelain, n. and adj.”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2006
• “porcelain”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).
• Krueger, Dennis (December 1982). "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?" Studio Potter, Vol. 11, Number 1.

Further reading

• porcelain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia