Etymology of tea

Common card · No. 225850

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. In this context, tea generally refers to the plant Camellia sinensis and/or the aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot boiling water over the leaves. Most of the words for tea worldwide originate from Chinese pronunciations of the word 茶, and they 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. The more common tea form arrived in the 17th century via the Dutch, who acquired it either indirectly from teh in Malay, or directly from the tê pronunciation in Min Chinese. The third form chai (used in English almost solely to refer to Indian-style spiced tea) originated from the Chinese pronunciation of cha, which travelled...

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