The word tea come from

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The etymology of the various words for tea reflects the history of transmission of tea drinking culture and trade from China to countries around the world.^[1] Nearly all of the words for tea worldwide fall into three broad groups: te, cha and chai, present in English as tea, cha or char, and chai. The earliest of the three to enter English is cha, which came in the 1590s via the Portuguese, who traded in Macao and picked up the Cantonese pronunciation of the word.^[2][3] The more common tea form arrived in the 17th century via the Dutch, who acquired it either indirectly from the Malay teh, or directly from the tê pronunciation in Min Chinese.^[2] The third form chai (meaning «spiced tea») originated from a northern Chinese pronunciation of cha, which travelled overland to Central Asia and Persia where it picked up a Persian ending yi, and entered English via Hindustani in the 20th century.^[4]

The different regional pronunciations of the word in China are believed to have arisen from the same root, which diverged due to sound changes through the centuries. The written form of the word in Chinese 茶 was created in the mid-Tang dynasty by modifying the character 荼 (pronounced tu) that meant «bitter vegetable». Tu was used to refer to a variety of plants in ancient China, and acquired the additional meaning of «tea» by the Han dynasty.^[4] The Chinese word for tea was likely ultimately derived from the non-Sinitic languages of the botanical homeland of the tea plant in southwest China (or Burma), possibly from an archaic Austro-Asiatic root word *la, meaning «leaf».^[5]

Pronunciation[edit]

The Chinese character for tea is 茶, originally written with an extra horizontal stroke as 荼 (pronounced tu), and acquired its current form in the Tang dynasty first used in the eighth-century treatise on tea The Classic of Tea.^[6][7][8] The word tú 荼 appears in ancient Chinese texts such as Shijing signifying a kind of «bitter vegetable» (苦菜) and refers to various plants such as sow thistle, chicory, or smartweed,^[9] and also used to refer to tea during the Han dynasty.^[10] By the Northern Wei the word tu also appeared with a wood radical, meaning a tea tree.^[10] The word 茶 first introduced during the Tang dynasty refers exclusively to tea. It is pronounced differently in the different varieties of Chinese, such as chá in Mandarin, zo and dzo in Wu Chinese, and ta and te in Min Chinese.^[11][12] One suggestion is that the pronunciation of tu (荼) gave rise to tê;^[13] but historical phonologists believe that cha, te and dzo all arose from the same root with a reconstructed hypothetical pronunciation dra (dr— represents a single consonant for a retroflex d), which changed due to sound shift through the centuries.^[4] Other ancient words for tea include jia (檟, defined as «bitter tu» during the Han dynasty), she (蔎), ming (茗, meaning «fine, special tender tea») and chuan (荈), but ming is the only other word for tea still in common use.^[4][14]

Most Chinese languages, such as Mandarin and Cantonese, pronounce it along the lines of cha, but Min varieties along the Southern coast of China pronounce it like teh. These two pronunciations have made their separate ways into other languages around the world:^[15]

• Te is from the Amoy tê of Hokkien dialect in southern Fujian. The ports of Xiamen (Amoy) and Quanzhou were once major points of contact with foreign traders. Western European traders such as the Dutch may have taken this pronunciation either directly from Fujian or Taiwan where they had established a port, or indirectly via Malay traders in Bantam, Java.^[16] The Dutch pronunciation of thee then spread to other countries in Western Europe. This pronunciation gives rise to English «tea» and similar words in other languages, and is the most common form worldwide.
• Cha originated from different parts of China. The «cha» pronuniation may come from the Cantonese pronunciation tsa around Guangzhou (Canton) and the ports of Hong Kong and Macau, also major points of contact, especially with the Portuguese, who spread it to India in the 16th century. The Korean and Japanese pronunciations of cha, however, came not from Cantonese, rather they were borrowed into Korean and Japanese during earlier periods of Chinese history. Chai (Persian: چای chay) ^[17] might have been derived from Northern Chinese pronunciation of chá,^[18] which passed overland to Central Asia and Persia, where it picked up the Persian ending -yi before passing on to Russian, Arabic, Turkish, etc.^[4][2] The chai pronunciation first entered English either via Russian or Arabic in the early 20th century,^[19] and then as a word for «spiced tea» via Hindi-Urdu which acquired the word under the influence of the Mughals.^[17]

English has all three forms: cha or char (both pronounced ), attested from the late 16th century;^[20] tea, from the 17th;^[21] and chai, from the 20th.^[22]

Languages in more intense contact with Chinese, Sinospheric languages like Korean, Vietnamese and Japanese, may have borrowed their words for tea at an earlier time and from a different variety of Chinese, in the so-called Sino-Xenic pronunciations. Although normally pronounced as cha (commonly with an honorific prefix o- as ocha) or occasionally as sa (as in sadô or kissaten) Japanese also retains the early but now uncommon pronunciations of ta and da, similarly Korean also has ta in addition to cha, and Vietnamese trà in addition to chè.^[3] The different pronunciations for tea in Japanese arose from the different times the pronunciations were borrowed into the language: Sa is the Tō-on reading (唐音, literally Tang reading but in fact post Tang), ‘ta’ is the Kan-on (漢音) from the Middle Chinese spoken at the Tang dynasty court at Chang’an; which is still preserved in modern Min Dong da. Ja is the Go-on (呉音) reading from Wuyue region,^{[citation needed]} and comes from the earlier Wu language centered at Nanjing, a place where the consonant was still voiced, as it is today in Hunanese za or Shanghainese zo.^[23] Zhuang language also features southern cha-type pronunciations.^{[citation needed]}

The few exceptions of words for tea that do not fall into the three broad groups of te, cha and chai are the local languages from the botanical homeland of the tea plant.^[4] Examples are la (meaning tea purchased elsewhere) and miiem (wild tea gathered in the hills) from the Wa people of northeast Burma and southwest Yunnan, letpet in Burmese and meng in Lamet meaning «fermented tea leaves», tshuaj yej in Hmong language as well as miang in Thai («fermented tea»). These languages belong to the Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman and Tai families of languages now found in South East Asia and southwest of China. Scholars have suggested that the Austro-Asiatic languages may be the ultimate source of the word tea, including the various Chinese words for tea such as tu, cha and ming. Cha for example may have been derived from an archaic Austro-Asiatic root word *la (Proto-Austroasiatic: *slaʔ, cognate with Proto-Vietic *s-laːʔ), meaning «leaf», while ming may be from the Mon–Khmer meng (fermented tea leaves). The Sinitic, Tibeto-Burman and Tai speakers who came into contact with the Austro-Asiatic speakers then borrowed their words for tea.^[24]

Etymological observations[edit]

The different words for tea fall into two main groups: «te-derived» (Min) and «cha-derived» (Cantonese and Mandarin).^[2] Most notably through the Silk Road;^[25] global regions with a history of land trade with central regions of Imperial China (such as North Asia, Central Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East) pronounce it along the lines of ‘cha’, whilst most global maritime regions with a history of sea trade with certain southeast regions of Imperial China (such as Europe), pronounce it like ‘teh’.^[26]

The words that various languages use for «tea» reveal where those nations first acquired their tea and tea culture:

• Portuguese traders were the first Europeans to import the herb in large amounts. The Portuguese borrowed their word for tea (chá) from Cantonese in the 1550s via their trading posts in the south of China, especially Macau.^[27]
• In Central Asia, Mandarin cha developed into Persian chay, and this form spread with Central Asian trade and cultural influence.
• Russia (чай, chai) encountered tea in Central Asia.
• The Dutch word for «tea» (thee) comes from Min Chinese. The Dutch may have borrowed their word for tea through trade directly from Fujian or Formosa, or from Malay traders in Java who had adopted the Min pronunciation as teh.^[16][27] The Dutch first imported tea around 1606 from Macao via Bantam, Java,^[28] and played a dominant role in the early European tea trade through the Dutch East India Company, influencing other European languages, including English, French (thé), Spanish (té), and German (Tee).^[27]
• The Dutch first introduced tea to England in 1644.^[27] By the 19th century, most British tea was purchased directly from merchants in Canton, whose population uses cha, the English however kept its Dutch-derived Min word for tea, although char is sometimes used colloquially to refer to the drink in British English (see below).

At times, a te form will follow a cha form, or vice versa, giving rise to both in one language, at times one an imported variant of the other:

• In North America, the word chai is used to refer almost exclusively to the Indian masala chai (spiced tea) beverage, in contrast to tea itself.
• The inverse pattern is seen in Moroccan colloquial Arabic (Darijja), shay means «generic, or black Middle Eastern tea» whereas atay refers particularly to Zhejiang or Fujian green tea with fresh mint leaves. The Moroccans are said to have acquired this taste for green tea—unique in the Arab world—after the ruler Mulay Hassan exchanged some European hostages captured by the Barbary pirates for a whole ship of Chinese tea. See Moroccan tea culture.
• The colloquial Greek word for tea is tsáï, from Slavic chai. Its formal equivalent, used in earlier centuries, is téïon, from tê.
• The Polish word for a tea-kettle is czajnik, which comes from the Russian word Чай (pronounced chai). However, tea in Polish is herbata, which, as well as Lithuanian arbata, was derived from the Dutch herba thee, although a minority believes that it was derived Latin herba thea, meaning «tea herb.»^[3]
• The normal word for tea in Finnish is tee, which is a Swedish loan. However, it is often colloquially referred to, especially in Eastern Finland and in Helsinki, as tsai, tsaiju, saiju or saikka, which is cognate to the Russian word chai. The latter word refers always to black tea, while green tea is always tee.
• In Ireland, or at least in Dublin, the term cha is sometimes used for «tea,» as is pre-vowel-shift pronunciation «tay» (from which the Irish Gaelic word tae is derived^{[citation needed]}). Char was a common slang term for tea throughout British Empire and Commonwealth military forces in the 19th and 20th centuries, crossing over into civilian usage.
• The British slang word «char» for «tea» arose from its Cantonese Chinese pronunciation «cha» with its spelling affected by the fact that ar is a more common way of representing the phoneme /ɑː/ in British English.

Derivatives of te[edit]

Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name
Afrikaans	tee	Armenian	թեյ [tʰɛj]	Basque	tea	Belarusian	гарба́та (harbáta)(1)	Catalan	te
Kashubian	(h)arbata(1)	Czech	té or thé(2)	Danish	te	Dutch	thee	English	tea
Esperanto	teo	Estonian	tee	Faroese	te	Finnish	tee	French	thé
West Frisian	tee	Galician	té	German	Tee	Greek	τέϊον téïon	Hebrew	תה, te
Hungarian	tea	Icelandic	te	Indonesian	teh	Irish	tae	Italian	tè
Javanese	tèh	Kannada	ಟೀಸೊಪ್ಪು ṭīsoppu	Khmer	តែ tae	scientific Latin	thea	Latvian	tēja
Leonese	té	Limburgish	tiè	Lithuanian	arbata(1)	Low Saxon	Tee [tʰɛˑɪ] or Tei [tʰaˑɪ]	Malay	teh
Malayalam	തേയില tēyila	Maltese	tè	Norwegian	te	Occitan	tè	Polish	herbata(1)
Scots	tea [tiː] ~ [teː]	Scottish Gaelic	tì, teatha	Sinhalese	tē තේ	Spanish	té	Sundanese	entèh
Swedish	te	Tamil	தேநீர் tēnīr (3)	Telugu	తేనీరు tēnīr (4)	Western Ukrainian	gerbata(1)	Welsh	te

Notes:

• ⁽¹⁾ from Latin herba thea, found in Polish, Western Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Kashubian (for Belarusian and Western Ukrainian the g- is pronounced as h-)^[3]
• ⁽²⁾ té or thé, but this term is considered archaic and is a literary expression; since roughly the beginning of the 20th century, čaj is used for ‘tea’ in Czech; see the following table
• ⁽³⁾ nīr means water; tēyilai means «tea leaf» (ilai «leaf»)
• ⁽⁴⁾ nīru means water; ṭīyāku means «tea leaf» (āku = leaf in Telugu)

Derivatives of cha[edit]

Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name
Chinese	茶 Chá	Assamese	চাহ sah	Bengali	চা cha (sa in Eastern regions)	Kapampangan	cha	Cebuano	tsá
English	cha or char	Gujarati	ચા chā	Japanese	茶, ちゃ cha(1)	Kannada	ಚಹಾ chahā	Khasi	sha
Punjabi	چاء ਚਾਅ cha	Korean	차 cha(1)	Kurdish	ça	Lao	ຊາ /saː˦˥/	Marathi	चहा chahā
Oḍiā	ଚା’ cha’a	Persian	چای chā	Portuguese	chá	Sindhi	chahen چانهه	Somali	shaah
Tagalog	tsaá	Thai	ชา /t͡ɕʰaː˧/	Tibetan	ཇ་ ja	Vietnamese	trà and chè(2)

Notes:

• ⁽¹⁾ The main pronunciations of 茶 in Korea and Japan are 차 cha and ちゃ cha, respectively. (Japanese ocha (おちゃ) is honorific.) These are connected with the pronunciations at the capitals of the Song and Ming dynasties.
• ⁽²⁾ Trà and chè are variant pronunciations of 茶; the latter is used mainly in northern Vietnam and describes a tea made with freshly picked leaves.

Derivatives of chai[edit]

Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name
Albanian	çaj	Amharic	ሻይ shay	Arabic	شاي shāy	Assyrian Neo-Aramaic	ܟ݈ܐܝ chai	Armenian	թեյ tey
Azerbaijani	çay	Bosnian	čaj	Bulgarian	чай chai	Chechen	чай chay	Croatian	čaj
Czech	čaj	English	chai	Finnish dialectal	tsai, tsaiju, saiju or saikka	Georgian	ჩაი chai	Greek	τσάι tsái
Hindi	चाय chāy	Kazakh	шай shai	Kyrgyz	чай chai	Kinyarwanda	icyayi	Judaeo-Spanish	צ’יי chai
Macedonian	чај čaj	Malayalam	ചായ chaaya	Mongolian	цай tsai	Nepali	chiyā चिया	Pashto	چای chay
Persian	چای chāī (1)	Romanian	ceai	Russian	чай chay	Serbian	чај čaj	Slovak	čaj
Slovene	čaj	Swahili	chai	Tajik	чой choy	Tatar	чәй çäy	Tlingit	cháayu
Turkish	çay	Turkmen	çaý	Ukrainian	чай chai	Urdu	چائے chai	Uzbek	choy

Notes:

• ⁽¹⁾ Derived from the earlier pronunciation چا cha.

Others[edit]

Language	Name	Language	Name	Language	Name
Japanese	だ da, た ta(1)	Korean	다 da [ta](1)	Burmese	လက်ဖက် lahpet [ləpʰɛʔ](2)
Thai	miang(3)	Lamet	meng	Tai	la

• ⁽¹⁾ Note that cha is the common pronunciation of «tea» in Japanese and Korean.
• ⁽²⁾ Fermented tea leaves eaten as a meal
• ⁽³⁾ Fermented tea

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Benn, James A. (2015). Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-988-8208-73-9.
• Mair, Victor H.; Hoh, Erling (2009). The True History of Tea. Thames & Hudson. pp. 262–264. ISBN 978-0-500-25146-1.

Where does word tea come from?

The “tea”-like phrasings spread over water, by Dutch traders bringing the novel leaves back to Europe. The term cha (茶) is “Sinitic,” meaning it is common to many varieties of Chinese. It began in China and made its way through central Asia, eventually becoming “chay” (چای) in Persian.

What is the Indian word for tea?

chai

Is Chai an Indian word?

Chai comes from the Hindi word meaning “tea.” While the exact origin of traditional masala chai is up in the air, original chai tea owes its roots to South Asia.

Why tea is called chai?

The name “chai” is actually the Hindi word for “tea”, which was derived from “cha”, the Chinese word for “tea”. In this case, the Hindi term chai means a mix of spices steeped into a tea-like beverage. The spiced tea mixture is typically brewed strong with milk and sweetened with sugar or honey.

Does Chai mean tea?

Chai tea simply translates to “tea tea.” It’s like referring to kabocha as kabocha squash, or shortbread as shortbread cookies. What most people consider “chai tea” is better known as masala chai (“masala” means spices). However, there are a number of regional chai variations.

How many languages does Chai mean tea?

So, chai tea latte (literally “tea tea milk”) is a 3-word phrase with three simple words from three different languages.

What does Chai mean in Russian?

Chai just means tea. Green tea is zelyoniy chai.

What does Chai mean in Arabic?

tea

Which countries call tea chai?

Russia (chai) encountered tea in Central Asia. The Dutch word for “tea” (thee) comes from Min Chinese. The Dutch may have borrowed their word for tea through trade directly from Fujian or Formosa, or from Malay traders in Java who had adopted the Min pronunciation as teh.

Is Chai a loanword?

The difference is that although it shares a character, the pronunciation is different in Mandarin (cha) and the Fujian dialect where Western traders came (tea). Since tea is almost always a loanword, it just carried the pronunciation it came with. Chai is also “tea” in Indonesian and Swahili.

Are tea and chai different?

In very broad and simple terms the difference between tea and chai is that tea is the drink made from loose leaves and enjoyed plain or with a spot of milk, while almost all chais use a strong CTC base which is balanced by the addition of milk and intensified in aroma and flavors by the addition of spices.

What is tea with milk called?

Bubble tea, also known as pearl milk tea or boba milk tea, a Taiwanese tea-based drink invented in Taichung in the 1980s. Cambric tea, a sweetened hot-milk beverage, often made with a small amount of tea.

Is chai tea healthier than green tea?

Green tea contains high levels of flavonoids called catechins, while chai tea contains high levels of theaflavins and thearubigins, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. These groups of chemicals both have beneficial effects, but may have distinct mechanisms of action on a number of processes within your cells.

What does Chai mean Chinese?

Chai, a word for tea in numerous languages, derived from Chinese chá (茶)

What does Chai mean in Hebrew?

Het-Yud spells the word Chai (חי), usually pronounced like the English word “hi” or “high,” which is a word and symbol that means “life.” In fact, a common Jewish toast is “l’chaim!,” which means, “to life!” is often said at celebrations in anticipation of all the good things to come.

Why is Chai good luck?

The Gift of Chai As a result, 18 is a popular number that represents good luck. At weddings, bar mitzvahs, and other events, Jews often give gifts of money in multiples of 18, symbolically giving the recipient the gift of life or luck. This manner of giving gifts is referred to as “giving Chai.”

What does Tracey mean in Hebrew?

The meaning of Tracy is “place of Thracius”. In biblical Hebrew, the Semitic consonant ḏ merged into z, accounting for the form of the word in Hebrew. From an English surname that was taken from a Norman French place name meaning “domain belonging to THRACIUS”.

Is Tracey a biblical name?

Tracey is baby unisex name mainly popular in Christian religion and its main origin is English. Tracey name meanings is One who is warlike.

Is Tracy a biblical name?

Tracy is a christian girl name and it is an English originated name with multiple meanings. Tracy name meaning is placeof Thracius and the associated lucky number is 4.

Is Tracy a French name?

Tracy originates in Norman French and means “from the place of Thracius”. Initially, it was a Norman French surname, later on it started being used as a masculine name and today it is more popular as a feminine given name.

What does Tracy mean in French?

from the place of Thracius

Is Tracy an English name?

Tracy (/ˈtreɪsi/; also spelled Tracey, Traci, Tracci, Tracie, or Trasci), as a British personal name, was originally adopted from Norman surnames such as those of the family de Tracy or de Trasci from Tracy-Bocage in Normandy, France. The name is taken from the Irish word “treasach” meaning “war-like” or “fighter”.

Is Tracy short for Theresa?

Teresa, Theresa and Therese (French: Thérèse) are feminine given names….Teresa.

Other names
Alternative spelling	Theresa, Terisa
Nickname(s)	Terri, Terry, Tracy, Tess, Teresita

What is short for Theresa?

Short forms Tess,Tessa, Tressa, or Tea are more popular now than the old Terry or Tracy. An interesting variation is Tereza, as in Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Mia Farrow’s sister Theresa is known as Tisa.

Is Theresa an Irish name?

This Irish girls name comes from the Gaelic language and means “strong” or “strength”. It can be used as an Irish variant of the English name Theresa. Alternative Irish spellings for this name can include Toiréasa or Terise.

English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Circa 1650, from Dutch thee, from Hokkien 茶 (tê) (Amoy dialect), from Old Chinese, ultimately from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-la (“leaf, tea”).

Introduced to English and other Western European languages by the Dutch East India Company, who sourced their tea in Amoy; compare Malay teh along the same trade route. Doublet of chai and cha (and, distantly, lahpet), from same Proto-Sino-Tibetan root; see discussion of cognates.

Alternative forms[edit]

• tay

Pronunciation[edit]

• (General American) enPR: tē, IPA^(key): /ti/, [tʰi]
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tē, IPA^(key): /tiː/, [tʰiː]
• Rhymes: -iː
• Homophones: T, te, tee, ti

Noun[edit]

tea (countable and uncountable, plural teas)

1. (uncountable) The tea plant (Camellia sinensis); (countable) a variety of this plant.

2. (uncountable) The dried leaves or buds of the tea plant; (countable) a variety of such leaves.

   Go to the supermarket and buy some Darjeeling tea.

3. (uncountable) The drink made by infusing these dried leaves or buds in hot water.

   Would you like some tea?

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎^[1]:

     Mother […] considered that the exclusiveness of Peter’s circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.

4. (uncountable) Any similar drink made by infusing parts of various other plants.

   camomile tea; mint tea

5. (uncountable, in combination) Meat stock served as a hot drink.

   beef tea

6. (countable, Commonwealth, northern US) A cup or (East Asia, Southern US) glass of any of these drinks, often with milk, sugar, lemon, and/or tapioca pearls.
8. (uncountable, UK) A light midafternoon meal, typically but not necessarily including tea.
   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

     But the gorge of the Rush was not at all a nice place for travelling either. I mean, it was not a nice place for people in a hurry. For an afternoon’s ramble ending in a picnic tea it would have been delightful.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, London: Heinemann, →OCLC, page 23:

     Tea was a very special institution, revolving as it did around the ceremony and worship of Toast. In [public schools] where alcohol, tobacco and drugs were forbidden, it was essential that something should take their place as a powerful and public totem of virility and cool. Toast, for reasons lost in time, was the substance chosen.

9. (uncountable, Commonwealth) Synonym of supper, the main evening meal, whether or not it includes tea.

   The family were sitting round the table, eating their tea.

   • 2018, Ray Wyre, Tim Tate, The Murder of Childhood (page 126)

     Jacki set about making the tea—bacon grills with chips and bread and butter.

10. (cricket) The break in play between the second and third sessions.

    Australia were 490 for 7 at tea on the second day.

    • 2009, Guardian Media Group, in The Guardian, “What do cricketers eat at tea? When is it safe to flush on the train? What’s a plujit?”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎^[2]:

      As recently as the mid-80s the players would be given a bottle of beer at lunchtime at some county grounds, and «tea» still meant a cup of tea into the 90s.

11. (slang, dated) Synonym of marijuana.
    • 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin 2010, page 103:

      So they were evidence. Evidence of what? That a man occasionally smoked a stick of tea, a man who looked as if any touch of the exotic would appeal to him. On the other hand lots of tough guys smoked marijuana […] .

    • 1946, Mezz Mezzrow; Bernard Wolfe, Really the Blues, New York: Random House, page 74:

      Tea puts a musician in a real masterly sphere, and that’s why so many jazzmen have used it.

    • 1947 March 11, William Burroughs, letter:

      Here in Texas possession of tea is a felony calling for 2 years.

    • 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC:

      Seeing that we didn’t know anything about ourselves, he whipped out three sticks of tea and said to go ahead, supper’d be ready soon.

12. (slang, especially gay slang and African-American Vernacular) Information, especially gossip.
    • 2015, Sonya Shuman, Doors of the Church Are Open: Smoke & Mirrors by Sonya Shuman:

      «What’s the tea on you and China? Where she at Alicia? You should know where ya baby at.»

Usage notes[edit]

In most places tea is assumed to mean hot tea, while in the southern United States, it is assumed to mean iced tea.

Synonyms[edit]

• (plant): tea plant, tea tree, tea bush
• (leaves): tea leaves
• (beverage): see Thesaurus:tea
• (beverages similar to tea): herb tea, herbal tea, infusion, tisane
• (a light meal): see afternoon tea & Thesaurus:meal

Hyponyms[edit]

• (beverage): see Thesaurus:tea

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

• Gullah: tea
• Jamaican Creole: tea
• → Abenaki: ti
• → Chickasaw: tii’
• → Cocopa: ṭi·
• → Cornish: té
• → Cree:

  Canadian syllabics script: ᑎᕀ (tiy)

  Latin script: tiy

• → Inuktitut: ᑏ (tii)
• → Irish: tae
• → Maori: tī
• → Malecite-Passamaquoddy: ti
• → Mikasuki: ti’g’tlo’q, ji’gitlo’q (“kettle”) (from «tea kettle»)
• → Panamint: tii
• → Telugu: టీ (ṭī)
• → Unami: ti
• → Welsh: te

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

tea (third-person singular simple present teas, present participle teaing, simple past and past participle teaed or tea’d or tead)

1. To drink tea.

   • 1916 March 28, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, “Elizabeth”, in William Shawcross, editor, Counting One’s Blessings: The Selected Letters of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published 2012, page 32:

     We tea’d with May, and had to wait over an hour for a taxi!

   • 1837, Benjamin Disraeli, Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1835-1837, Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, published 1982, →ISBN, page 319:

     I dined yesterday at | three on mutton chops and 1/2 pint of E[ast] I [ndian] sherry, and then tead and muffined’ at 8.

   • 1921, Desmos of Delta Sigma Delta, page 41:

     We coffeed and tead and smoked a trench torch with Grand Master Browning, and cranked our Cadillac for another station.

2. To take afternoon tea (the light meal).
   • 1877, The Bicycling Times and Tourist’s Gazette (page 38)

     The wind was high and the hills ditto, and both being against us we were late in reaching Hitchin (30 from Cambridge), so giving up the idea of reaching Oxford we toiled on through Luton, on to Dunstable (47), where we teaed moderately […]

3. To give tea.

   • 1858, Benedict Cruiser, “Of the Agonising Process by which that which was once a Bower of Bliss was converted into a Cave of Despair”, in George Augustus Sala, editor, How I Tamed Mrs. Cruiser, London: James Blackwood, page 129:

     And they’ve got Professor Hummums with ’em, the great Everlasting Star of the Nineteenth Century, which he has breakfasted and dined and tea’d and supped here ever since yesterday.

   • 1863, chapter I, in Hospital Transports. A Memoir of the Embarkation of the Sick and Wounded from the Peninsula of Virginia in the Summer of 1862., Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, page 25:

     In half an hour they had all been tea’d and coffeed and refreshed by the nurses, and shortly after were all undressed and put to bed clean and comfortable, and in a droll state of grateful wonder;

   • 1866, Emma Jane Worboise, “The St. Beetha’s Temperance Society”, in St. Beetha’s; or, The Heiress of Arne, London: “Christian World” Office, […]; Jackson, Walford, and Hodder, […], →OCLC, page 213:

     But one or two evil-disposed characters muttered they might be sure the lady had her own turn to serve, and they might be sure they wasn’t «teaed and muffined and sandwiched for nothing!»

   • 1909, The Public, page 109:

     This gentleman was presented by Colonel C. E. S. Wood, and was entertained here—wined, dined, tead, breakfasted, coffeed and luncheoned—and we bought his pictures.

   • 2019, Jordaina Sydney Robinson, Dead Completely (Afterlife Adventures Series):

     After I’d tea’d everyone and Oz had breakfasted them, […]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Chinese 茶 (chá, “tea”).

Noun[edit]

tea (plural teas)

1. A moment, a historical unit of time from China, about the amount of time needed to quickly drink a traditional cup of tea. It is now found in Chinese-language historical fiction.

Usage notes[edit]

This term is found in English translations of Chinese-language historical fiction, where it is used to give the work an ancient Chinese feel.

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

• -ate, AET, Até, Atë, ETA, a.e.t., aet, ate, eat, eta, æt.

Basque[edit]

Noun[edit]

tea

1. absolutive singular of te

Ese[edit]

Noun[edit]

tea

1. feces; excrement

Estonian[edit]

Verb[edit]

tea

1. present indicative connegative of teadma
2. second-person singular imperative of teadma

Galician[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old Galician-Portuguese tea (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin tēla. Cognate with Portuguese teia and Spanish tela.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ˈtea̝/

Noun[edit]

tea f (plural teas)

1. (uncountable) cloth
2. (countable) a piece of cloth
   • 1326, Antonio López Ferreiro (ed.), Galicia Histórica. Colección diplomática. Santiago: Tipografía Galaica, page 300:

     It. mando que todollos lenços delgados et teas de rens que os tome Garcia perez. et que faça delles fazer uestimentas para o altar de Sta Maria.

     Item, I command that every fine linen and the clothes of Reims to be taken by Garcia Perez, who should make them into clothes for the altar of Saint Mary

3. spiderweb

   Synonym: arañeira

4. canvas

   Synonym: lenzo

5. film (skin)

   Synonym: película

Derived terms[edit]

• tear

Etymology 2[edit]

From Old Galician-Portuguese tea (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin taeda, from Ancient Greek δάος (dáos, “torch”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ˈtea̝/

Noun[edit]

tea f (plural teas)

1. torch

   Synonyms: facha, fachuzo

References[edit]

• “tea” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI — ILGA 2006–2022.
• “tea” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez — Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “tea” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI — ILGA 2006–2013.
• “tea” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “tea” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Hungarian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Dutch thee, from Min Nan 茶 (tê, “tea”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɛɒ], [ˈtɛjɒ]
• Hyphenation: tea
• Rhymes: -ɒ, -jɒ

Noun[edit]

tea (plural teák)

1. tea

Declension[edit]

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	tea	teák
accusative	teát	teákat
dative	teának	teáknak
instrumental	teával	teákkal
causal-final	teáért	teákért
translative	teává	teákká
terminative	teáig	teákig
essive-formal	teaként	teákként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	teában	teákban
superessive	teán	teákon
adessive	teánál	teáknál
illative	teába	teákba
sublative	teára	teákra
allative	teához	teákhoz
elative	teából	teákból
delative	teáról	teákról
ablative	teától	teáktól
non-attributive possessive — singular	teáé	teáké
non-attributive possessive — plural	teáéi	teákéi

Possessive forms of tea
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	teám	teáim
2nd person sing.	teád	teáid
3rd person sing.	teája	teái
1st person plural	teánk	teáink
2nd person plural	teátok	teáitok
3rd person plural	teájuk	teáik

Derived terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• tea in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Anagrams[edit]

• Eta

Maori[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Polynesian *tea.

Adjective[edit]

tea

1. white

   Synonym: mā

Derived terms[edit]

• Aotearoa

Colors in Maori · ngā tae(layout · text)

mā, tea	kiwikiwi	pango
whero, kura	karaka; parauri	kōwhai, renga
	kākāriki	kārikiuri
	kikorangi	kahurangi
tūāuri	waiporoporo	māwhero

Rapa Nui[edit]

Noun[edit]

tea

1. dawn

Derived terms[edit]

• tea tea

Sedang[edit]

Noun[edit]

tea

1. water
2. body of water: river, lake, etc
3. liquid
4. wine

References[edit]

• Kenneth D. Smith, Sedang Dictionary (2012), page 375

Spanish[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• teda (rare)

Etymology[edit]

From Latin tēda, early monophthongized variant of Latin taeda (“torch”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ˈtea/ [ˈt̪e.a]
• Rhymes: -ea
• Syllabification: te‧a

Noun[edit]

tea f (plural teas)

1. torch (a stick with a flame on one end, used chiefly as a light source)

   Synonym: antorcha

   • 2013 August 18, Gertrudis María Glück, “El Viaje del Lector: Alemania”, in Clarín‎^[3]:

     En esa época en que aún no existía el vidrio, para resguardarse del frío se tapiaban las ventanas con tablas de madera. A su vez, la iluminación se realizaba con teas que llenaban de humo los ambientes cerrados.

     In that era when glass still didn’t exist, to protect themselves from the cold, they boarded up windows with wooden planks. In turn, lighting was achieved with torches that filled closed environments with smoke.

2. (colloquial) intoxication, drunkenness

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:borrachera

Further reading[edit]

• “tea”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

За редким исключением, в мире всего два звука, обозначающих чай. Один из них — «ти» — например, в английском «tea», испанском «té» или «tee» в африкаансе. Другая вариация — «ча», как, собственно, в русском «чай» или в хинди.

Оба варианта возникли в Китае. Их распространение по другим странам наглядно демонстрирует, как работала глобализация задолго до того, как для нее придумали соответствующий термин. Корень «ча» распространялся по земле — вдоль Великого шелкового пути. Слова с корнем «ти» передавались морем — с голландскими торговыми кораблями, которые везли чай в Европу.

Корень «ча» (茶) присутствует в большинстве разновидностей китайского языка. Из Китая он попал в Центральную Азию, где стал звучать как «чай» (چای) на фарси. Это произошло благодаря Великому шелковому пути, по которому, как недавно выяснилось, перевозили чай еще две тысячи лет назад. Впоследствии корень «ча» распространился и за пределы Персии. В арабском появилось слово «шай», а в урду и русском — «чай». Слово попало даже за пустыню Сахара — в суахили тоже есть слово «чай». Японское и корейское названия чая также основаны на китайском «ча». Впрочем, слово появилось в этих языках раньше, чем к западу от Китая.

С корнем «ти» история совсем другая. Иероглиф для этого слога (茶) по-разному произносится в разных регионах Китая, хотя и пишется одинаково. В современном севернокитайском он произносится как «ча», но в южноминьском языке, распространенном в приморской провинции Фуцзянь, — как «ти». Ключевое слово здесь — «приморский».

Форма «ти», используемая в приморских разновидностях китайского, попала в Европу с голландцами, которые в XVII веке стали главными поставщиками чая в эту часть света. Об этом рассказывается во «Всемирном атласе языковых структур» Мартина Хаспельмата. Главными голландскими портами в Восточной Азии были Фуцзянь и Тайвань; в обоих регионах было распространено именно произношение «ти». Благодаря экспорту Голландской Ост-Индской компанией чая в Европу появились французское «le thé», немецкое «tee» и английское «tea».

Однако голландцы наладили связи с Азией не первыми. Эта сделали португальцы, которые дали Тайваню колониальное название Формоза. Португальцы торговали с Китаем через Макао, где было распространено произношение «ча». Поэтому Португалия — одна из немногих европейских стран, где говорят «чай».

В некоторых языках есть собственные термины для чая. Как правило, они распространены в местах, где он растет, так что в свое время местные жители придумали собственное название для него. Так, в бирманском чайные листья называются «лакпхак».

Издание Quartz показывает две разные эпохи глобализации в действии: тысячелетнее распространение товаров и идей по Великому шелковому пути из древнего Китая и 400-летнее влияние азиатской культуры на европейскую через морскую торговлю.