a type of porous pottery glazed with bright metallic oxides that was originally imported into Italy via Majorca and was extensively made in Italy during the Renaissance
[C16: from Italian, from Late Latin Mājorica Majorca]
maiolicaormaiolica
—n
[C16: from Italian, from Late Latin Mājorica Majorca]
It. glazed pottery, 1555, from It. Majolica, 14c. name of island now known as Majorca in the Balearics, from L. major, so called because it is the largest of the three. The best pottery of this type was said to have been made there.