chinaとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

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, 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.

発音

• (英国発音, 米国発音) IPA^(key): /ˈtʃaɪnə/
• (英国発音, 廃れた用法) IPA^(key): /ˈtʃeɪnɪ/, /ˈtʃiːnɪ/
• 韻: -aɪnə

名詞

china (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 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.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970, 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", Boys' 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.

派生語

• bone china, bull in a china shop, china-blue, china-closet, china doll, china eye, china-fancier, china-glaze, china-house, china-hunter, china-like, china mark, china money, china-oven, china-painting, china-paints, china-shell, china-shop, china-stone, china-tipper, china token, china wedding

参照

• “China, n.¹ and adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1889.
• “china”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.

アナグラム

• Anich, Chain, Chian, chain