faience

See also: faïence

English
Example of faience.

Alternative forms

Etymology

From French faïence, named after the city Faenza in Italy, where it was made in the 16th century.

Pronunciation
  • Rhymes: -aɪəns

Noun

faience (countable and uncountable, plural faiences)

  1. A type of tin-glazed earthenware ceramic.
    • 1886, Henry James, The Bostonians, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., OCLC 3179002:
      If she had wondered what Mrs. Burrage wished so particularly to talk about, she waited some time for the clearing-up of the mystery. During this interval she sat in a remarkably pretty boudoir, where there were flowers and faiences and little French pictures, and watched her hostess revolve round the subject in circles the vagueness of which she tried to dissimulate.
    • 1907, Edwin Atlee Barber, Tin enamelled Pottery Maiolica, Delft and other Stanniferous Faience, Doubleday, Page & Company New York, page #:6
      The word Majolica, or Maiolica […] was applied to all Stanniferous faience of Italy and Spain.
  2. (archaeology) The beads and small ornaments of the eastern Mediterranean. (Of bronze and iron age manufacture using frit technology.)

Translations

References
  • Krueger, Dennis (December 1982). "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?" Studio Potter Vol. 11, Number 1. (etymology)
  • “faience” in the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, 1974 edition.

Further reading

Anagrams
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