delft

The word 'delft' is a direct loanword from the toponym Delft, a city in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The city's name itself is thought to derive from the Old Dutch word 'delft', meaning 'a digging' or 'a canal', related to the verb 'delven' (to dig), referring to the city's many canals. As the distinctive blue and white tin-glazed pottery produced in this city gained international fame from the 17th century onwards, the place name was naturally adopted into English to denote the product itself. This process of a geographical name becoming a common noun for a style or product is a classic pattern in lexical development, similar to 'denim' (from de Nîmes, France) or 'china' (from China).

The word is a toponym, a proper noun adopted as a common noun. It originates from the name of the Dutch city 'Delft', where this type of pottery was famously produced.