china

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 (čini) in Persia and India, which influenced the pronunciation (see below). 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.

noun

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.
   They sell Callicoes, Cheney Sattin, Cheney ware. 1634, Thomas Herbert, A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, page 41
   ...a Present of certain very rich Pieces of China. 1653, Henry Cogan translating Fernão Mendes Pinto as The Voyages and Adventures of Fernand Mendez Pinto, p. 206
   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.
   What is porcelain? A fine earthenware differing from china in being harder, whiter, harder to fuse and more translucent than ordinary pottery. May 11 1921, “Edison Questions Stir Up a Storm”, in New York Times
4. (uncountable) Synonym of China root, the root of Smilax china (particularly) as a medicine.
5. (uncountable, obsolete) Synonym of cheyney: worsted or woolen stuff.
   ...And then the last boon I'll implore, Is to bless us with China so tight... 1790, Alexander Wilson, Poems, page 55
6. (countable) Synonym of China rose, in its various senses.
   Rosa indica (the common China); Rosa semperflorens (the monthly China). 1844, Jane Loudon, The Ladies' Companion to the Flower Garden, 3rd edition, page 344
7. (countable, Cockney rhyming slang, Australia, South Africa) Synonym of mate (rhyme of china-plate).
   All right, me old china?
   ‘Now, then, my china-plate...’ This is essentially a brick~layer's phrase. If for ‘china-plate’ you substitute ‘mate’,[…] the puzzle is revealed. 1880, Daniel William Barrett, Life and Work among the Navvies, 2nd edition, page 41
   China, or Old China: chum. 1925, Edward Fraser et al., Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases, page 53
8. (uncountable, dated) Tea from China, (particularly) varieties cured by smoking or opposed to Indian cultivars.
   Tea... Finest China, Plain (Moning). 1907, Yesterday's Shopping, page 1
9. (countable, games, chiefly US, obsolete) A glazed china marble.
   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. 1932 March, Dan Beard, “New-Fashioned Kites and Old-Fashioned Marbles”, in Boys' Life, page 27
10. (countable, music) A kind of drum cymbal approximating a Chinese style of cymbal, but usually with Turkish influences.
    China cymbals are a type of short sound cymbal. [Brand X] makes chinas with really short sounds. 2010, Carmine Appice, Drums for Everyone, page 78