pot earthn.
/pɒt ˈəːθ/, U.S. /pɑt ˈərθ/ Now rare.
Clay; esp. potter's clay or brick-earth.
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the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > clay > [noun] > suitable for pottery
eartha1350
pot earth?a1450
slip1640
blue clay1698
figuline1859
pottery clay1869
society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > clay > [noun] > for making pottery
eartha1350
potter's clay?a1425
potter's earth1440
pot earth?a1450
argil1530
pot clay1674
throwing clay1686
figuline1859
pottery clay1869
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > clay > [noun] > suitable for bricks
brick clay1688
Windsor loam1747
pot earth1766
brick earth1816
adobe1826
dobe1838
doughboy1856
?a1450 MS Bodl. e Mus. 116 f. 54v (MED) They [sc. chestnuts] growe neuere in poterthe as tow cley.
1598 W. Phillip tr. J. H. van Linschoten Disc. Voy. E. & W. Indies i. xcvii. 185/1 The Island Santa Maria [in the Azores]..hath no traffique but onlie of pot earth.
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. i. xiv. 125 The richest of such earth, (as pott earth and marle) will with much fire grow more compacted.
1683 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 13 394 Mr. Dafour hath received two [urns] from Egypt of Pot-earth beset with Hieroglyphicks, and fill'd with Mummie.
1734 Flower-garden Display'd (ed. 2) 126 These I had painted into an Imitation of blew Ware; but there was Care taken to make them of true season'd Pot-earth, that the Frost might not scale them.
1766 J. Entick Surv. London in New Hist. London IV. 201 All the hard crust of pot-earth..had been robbed by the potters.
1807 Times 3 Nov. 4/1 An Inclosure of excellent Meadow Land..which abounds with Tile Clay and Pot Earth.
1869 Times 15 Dec. 4/4 On one of these local beds, consisting of brick clay, or pot earth,..stands the greater part of St. Paul's.
1872 D. Hazlewood Feejeean & Eng. Dict. 84 in Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. (1935) 221 Munu, in pot making, signifies to mix sand with the pot earth.
1906 Daily Chron. 28 Nov. 6/7 To bridge over a weak spot from which the early potters had abstracted all the pot earth or brick earth, as we now call it.
2000 R. S. Sasscer U.S. Geol. Surv. Libr. Classif. Syst. 18 Clay (Includes clay minerals..and ceramic materials (potter's clay, potter's earth, pot clay, pot earth)).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?a1450