From clippings of attributive use ofChina, q.v., the country in East Asia. In reference to porcelain and porcelain objects, via clipping ofchinaware and via this sense ofPersianچینی(čīnī /čini) in Persia and India, which influenced the pronunciation (see below). In reference to medicine, via clipping ofChina root. In reference to flowers, via clipping ofChina rose. In reference to tea, via clipping ofChina tea. In Cockney slang, a clipping ofchina plate as a rhyme ofmate(“friend”). In reference to drum cymbals, a clipping ofChinacymbal and as a genericization of a kind of Zildjian-brand cymbal.[1][2]
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym;Robert Burton],The Anatomy of Melancholy:[…], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire:[…] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps,→OCLC, 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 […].
1932 March, Dan Beard, “New-Fashioned Kites and Old-Fashioned Marbles”, inBoys' Life,page27:
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 calledchinas. I remember how charming were the partly colored lines which encircled them.
Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua (2005), “china”, inDiccionario quechua-español-quechua/Qheswa-español-qheswa simi taqe[1], Cuzco: Regional Government of Cuzco
^Roberts, Edward A. (2014),A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Spanish Language with Families of Words based on Indo-European Roots, Xlibris Corporation,→ISBN
, Oxford:Oxford University Press,1889.