rice papern.adj.
/ˈrʌɪs ˌpeɪpə/, U.S. /ˈraɪs ˌpeɪpər/ A. n.
1. (a) More fully Chinese rice paper. Thin, translucent paper made from the flattened and dried pith of the plant Tetrapanax papyrifer, used esp. in East Asian painting and the manufacture of artificial flowers. (b) Paper made partly or wholly from rice straw. rare. (c) More fully Japanese rice paper. Thin, strong paper made from the paper mulberry or any of several other plants; cf. washi n.The pith of the Indo-Pacific tree Scaevola sericea is also said to have been used for the making of rice paper (see rice-paper plant n. (c) at Compounds).
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > material for making paper > paper > [noun] > paper made from other materials
rice paper1808
straw paper1854
1808 Hull Advertiser 11 Jan. A General Assortment of such Articles as are used for Ornamenting Works of Fancy, is always kept on hand, consisting of Morocco papers; Cyprus, Splash, and various Fancy Papers; Rice Paper; Gold and Coloured Borderings.
1819 Times 27 July 4/2 4,000 sheets of fancy papers, rice-paper, Chinese, pink, and scarlet paper.
1832 Gardener's Mag. 8 381 To exemplify the brittleness of cellular tissue, Mr. Lindley exhibited a specimen of Chinese rice paper, made from the medullary substance of the Æschynomene paludosa Roxb.
1857 A. Henfrey Elem. Course Bot. 311 The substance called Rice-paper, prepared by the Chinese, consists of thin slices of the pith of Aralia papyrifera.
1871 A. E. Moule Four Hundred Millions ii. 48 There is a kind of paper used in Fuh-chau called rice-paper, made from rice-straw; some is also made of cotton, some from the bark of mulberry-trees.
1913 A. B. F. M. Redesdale Trag. in Stone (ed. 2) 109 The true rice paper made from the rice straw is the coarse cheap yellow paper used for packing.
a1933 J. A. Thomson Biol. for Everyman (1934) II. 1401 ‘Rice-paper’, used for colour-printing, especially in China and Japan, has no connection with the rice plant; it is the finely sliced and pressed pith of the rice-paper tree, peculiar to Formosa.
1973 N. Spinrad in T. Shippey Oxf. Bk. Sci. Fiction (1992) 433 I received two packages from Mr Shiburo Ito. One was a mailing envelope containing a minicassette and a holo slide; the other was a heavy package about the size of a shoebox wrapped in blue rice paper.
1999 N.Y. Times 13 Aug. e38/2 In ‘Stacked Books’ (1998), a palladium print on Japanese rice paper, Jed Devine seems to compare three piles of brand new books to airy Isamu Noguchi light sculptures.
2006 Westerly (Rhode Island) Sun 8 Oct. 13/1 His gyotaku prints often have a variety of colors and settings that greatly differ from the traditional black ink on rice paper.
2. Originally: a thin, edible, paper-like substance made from a paste of flour, used esp. in baking and pharmacy (= wafer-paper n. at wafer n. Compounds 2). In later use also: a similar edible substance made from rice flour (and sometimes also tapioca flour), typically sold in sheets and used as a wrapping for food in South-East Asian cookery.
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1846 A. Soyer Gastron. Regenerator 549 Make the sails of wafer or rice-paper, fix them to the mast as if filled with wind... This dish has a pleasing effect, and, unlike many ornamental dishes, the whole of it is eatable.
1889 Chemist & Druggist 31 Aug. 296/1 First placing a cachet (it is pretty well known that these are made of rice-paper) in the cup.., the dose of the medicine is put into it.
1919 M. Elizabeth My Candy Secrets vi. 101 The rice paper is edible and wholesome, and need not be removed.
1968 J. N. H. Miller Vietnamese Cookery 19 Rice paper..is a tissue-paper thin round sheet of dried rice paste, which is sturdy enough to be used for wrapping things in a roll after it is dampened and softened with water.
1973 Los Angeles Times 16 Sept. (Calendar section) 65/2 Cha gio, which is made of minced meat and fish (crab and pork, chicken and shrimp, etc.) combined with mushrooms and vegetables rolled in a thin sheet of rice paper and deep fried.
1992 Food & Wine Feb. 40/1 Yannick's shows this chef's distinctive and precise style with such appetizers as the pannequet (shrimp and shellfish mousse wrapped in Asian rice paper).
1997 Vegetarian Times Feb. 110/3 Rice paper is used to wrap foods such as Thai spring rolls and can be prepared by soaking or deep-frying.
2007 P. Cuthbert & L. C. Wilson Cookies! 124/2 Shape the [macaroon] mixture into heaped teaspoon-sized balls and place on the rice paper, pressing down gently to flatten.
B. adj. (attributive).
Made of rice paper.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > material for making paper > paper > [adjective] > made or consisting of paper > of specific kind
rice paper1831
glassine1916
1831 L. M. Child Little Girl's Own Bk. 117 The bottom [of the basket] may be either plain, or lined with gold-paper, or have a rice paper bird, or butterfly, upon it.
1886 F. J. Steel Miscarriage of Justice 13 His customers..mark off 10 characters out of the 80 printed upon the rice-paper voucher handed them by the blank heathen.
1903 Eng. Illustr. Mag. 28 344/2 All the tiny, matted compartments with their rice-paper screens, and the hole for a charcoal fire in the middle of the floor.
1958 Nursing (St. John Ambulance Assoc.) ix. 107 These are small rice-paper containers with the powdered drug inside.
1990 Gourmet Nov. 84/1 Deep-fried rice-paper rolls stuffed with chicken and Napa cabbage and seasoned with curry and miso paste.
2008 Sunday Mail (Queensland) (Nexis) 12 Oct. 23 If not for renovating we'd still live with '50s Formica, shagpile carpet, rice-paper curtains and fluorescent lights.
Compounds
rice paper painting n. a painting executed in ink on rice paper (sense A. 1(a)), typically with a subject related to the natural world; (as a mass noun) the style or tradition of East Asian art to which such paintings belong.
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1828 Colonist 20 Mar. 137/3 (advt.) Rice-paper Paintings.
1911 G. T. Bush 40,000 Miles around World viii. 48 There ivory carvings, embroidery work, rice paper painting and the rougher manufactures were also noticed.
2007 Atlanta (Georgia) Jrnl.-Constit. 1 Apr. 4 k Tzu Hsi, empress of China, makes delicate rice paper paintings of birds, decorating them with her royal stamps and signature in calligraphy.
rice-paper plant n. any of various plants from which rice paper (sense A. 1) is or was thought to have been made; spec. †(a) the aquatic plant sola, Aeschynomene aspera, of tropical Asia (obsolete); (b) (more fully Chinese rice-paper plant) the shrub Tetrapanax papyrifer (family Araliaceae), of southern China; (c) (in full Malay rice-paper plant) the tropical Asian plant Scaevola sericea (family Goodeniaceae), which has pith similar to that of Tetrapanax papyrifer (now rare).
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the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > yielding fibre, thatching, or basket material > [noun] > sola
rice-paper plant1832
shola1836
sola1844
solar1859
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > shrubs > non-British shrubs > [noun] > Asian
Japan allspice1789
ramie1817
kaffir lime1824
luculia1826
rice-paper plant1832
pith plant1834
chimonanthus1836
jiti1836
rhea1837
leycesteria1838
wintersweet1846
crape-myrtle1850
skimmia1853
China-grass1858
taccada1866
saxaul1874
white kerria1900
sarcococca1914
1832 J. Lindley Introd. Bot. i. ii. 61 As in the Horse Chestnut, the Rice-paper plant, and many others.
1849 J. H. Balfour Man. Bot. 40 In the Rice-paper plant, a species of Æschynomene, the interior of the stem is occupied almost entirely by cellular tissue.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. II. 983/2 Rice-paper-plant, Malay, Scævola Taccada.
1876 Encycl. Brit. IV. 100/2 Æschynomene aspera (Shola plant, the Rice-paper plant of India).
1882 Garden Apr. 236/3 There is a wide ascending pathway, edged with Rice-paper plants.
1900 W. Robinson Eng. Flower Garden (ed. 8) 432/2 A[ralia] papyrifera (Chinese Rice-paper plant), though a native of the hot island of Formosa, is useful for the greenhouse in winter and the flower garden in summer.
1961 Econ. Bot. 15 165/2 This letter..apparently never came to the attention of the 19th century botanists who were concerned with the identity of the rice-paper plant.
1996 Chiltern Seeds Catal. 103 Rice Paper Plant. This is a handsome, useful and interesting plant—as a house plant it will be much admired for its magnificent felt-covered leaves, orange-green when young and whitish-green when mature.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.adj.1808