Porcelain
mid 16th century: from French porcelaine, from Italian porcellana ‘cowrie shell’, hence ‘chinaware’ (from its resemblance to the dense polished shells).
wiktionary
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).
etymonline
porcelain (n.)
ceramic ware having a translucent body, and, when it is glazed, a translucent glaze, 1530s, from French porcelaine and directly from Italian porcellana "porcelain" (13c.), literally "cowrie shell;" the chinaware being so called from resemblance of its lustrous transparency to the shiny surface of the shells. As an adjective from 1590s.
The shell's name in Italian is from porcella "young sow," fem. of Latin porcellus "young pig," diminutive of porculus "piglet," itself a diminutive of porcus "pig" (from PIE root *porko- "young pig"). According to an old theory, the connection of the shell and the pig is a perceived resemblance of the shell (also Venus shell) opening to the exposed outer genitalia of pigs. According to Century Dictionary (1897) the shell was "so called because the shape of the upper surface resembles the curve of a pig's back."
porcelain is china & china is p.; there is no recondite difference between the two things, which indeed are not two, but one; & the difference between the two words is merely that china is the homely term, while porcelain is exotic & literary. [Fowler]
