tea
～～～ WORD DNA ～～～～～～～～～～
In the 16th c. tea has first arrived in the English vocabulary.
Various spellings & pronunciations are found in the English history, & the oldest quotation on the OED is taken out of a 1598 translation book, in which the word form is Chaa. In English, cha or similar pronunciations became the minority word forms, & the word forms such as cha, chah, char, chai sound exotic.
Both Cha & tea are of Chinese origin. Cha is Cantonese as well as Mandarin. The Portuguese borrowed the Macau form cha to introduce tea to Europe in the 16th century.
Portuguese-Chinese Cha Family
Spanish cha (obsolete now)
Italian cià (obsolete now)
Russian чай (チャイ)
Tea is under the influence of the Dutch-Malay-Amoy Te Family. Amoy is a Chinese dialect spoken in Amoy, also called Xiamen Province in Fujian. The Dutch began to import tea in the 17th century. Most of European nations copied the TE sound.
Dutch-Malay-Amoy Te Family
Amoy te
Fuchian tiä
Indonesian teh
Malay te, teh
Dutch the
Modern Latin thea
English tea
German Tee
Swedish te
Danish te
Norwegian te
Icelandic te
French thé,
Spanish té (obsolete Spanish cha)
Italian tè (obsolete Italian cià)
Hungarian tea (テア)
From-Ancient-Chinese-CHA Family
The ultimate source for all words in the languages above is probably Ancient Chinese 茶 kia (?), which also gave rise to:
Korean 차 (cha)
Japanese ちゃ (茶 cha)
ティー [from English]
テ [From Italian & French]
チャイ [Probably from Urdu & Hindi.]
Vietnamese trà (チャ)
Urdu چائے (チャイ)
Hindi चाय (チャイ)
Persian چای (チャイ)
Arabic شاي (シャイ)
Turkish chāy (チャイ)
Mongolian цай (ツァイ)
Greek τσάι (ツァイ)
Romanian ceai (チャイ)
Swahili chai
SENSES & USAGE
PLANT
・the tea-leaf plant. Also, the tea-leaf shrub or tea-leaf tree, Camellia sinensis, which has oval & slightly tooth-like evergreen leaves & white flowers, & is said to have been cultivated in China, India, Japan, & adjacent countries from ancient times. The leaves, shoots, & twigs of this shrub are used to make various teas.
LEAVES
・the leaves or leaf-buds of the tea-leaf plant, dried, powdered, or prepared for making tea. Teas are sorted by the methods of processing, flavors, & colors: black tea, oolong tea, Pu-erh tea, yellow tea, white tea, green tea. Black tea is 100％ oxidized by bruising the fresh leaves & drying them, & the most popular in the UK, & green tea is not oxidized by steaming the fresh leaves & shoots, & the most popular in Japan:
Britain imported 15 million pounds of tea annually…
Common ingredients added to perfumes include ginger, grapefruit, musk, peppercorns, mandarin peel, fig leaves, rose, watercress, bamboo, clementine, vanilla, honeysuckle, and green tea.
--- attributive
The British Parliament passed the Tea Act in 1773...
The tea tax struck tea drinkers only...
tea industry…
tea supply…
tea plantation workers in Sri Lanka...
tea canister...
tea chest…
tea dust...
--- Used with the place name to specifies the producing district:
Assam tea…
Darjeeling tea…
・tea leaves left at the bottom of a teapot or tea cup after the tea has been drunk. Also, tea leaf. It is used in tasseomancy:
How to read tea leaves...
・(not for all the tea in China) [It was the fact that China was a country which produced a great deal of tea. This phrase was made up in Australian English.] not at any price:
I will never do that job for all the tea in China...
BEVERAGES
・a caffein-content drink with refreshing flavor & taste made by infusing the tea leaves in boiling, hot, or cold water:
Your tea will get quite cold…
How about tea?...
cold brew iced tea…
Black, Green, and oolong teas are all derived from exactly the same plant. The differences in taste and color come from their processing.
strong tea…
weak tea…
tea and turn out (=tea and accompaniments)...
---(used with specifying words) a drink made with tea & other ingredients:
apple tea…
lemon tea…
strawberry tea…
ginger honey tea...
Russian tea…
Hong Kong style milk tea, a mixture of black tea and evaporated milk...
・a cup or glass of tea:
We ordered two teas…
・attributive:
Boston Tea Party…
teapot…
tea bag…
tea cup…
tea mug…
tea bowl…
Tea urn...
tea cake…
tea spoon
tea set (cups, saucers, spoons, etc.)
a set of tea china…
tea cloth… (table cloth or cloth to wipe tea things or dishes after washing them.)
tea room…
tea shop…
tea bar...
tea towel… (tea cloth or wiper)
The Japanese tea ceremony was refined with Zen...
tea egg… (Chinese cookery)
tea culture…
tea picnic…
・[In the 17th century, this sense appeared, because a herbal infusion is made in the same way to brew tea.] a drink made from the leaves, flowers, roots, or other parts of other plant, often mixed with other ingredients; a herbal infusion; used with specifying words:
Moroccan mint tea…
sage tea…
chamomile tea…
Taiwanese jasmine tea…
maté tea...
Rosemary tea...
hibiscus tea…
lemon-grass tea...
hydrangea leaf tea...
New Jersey tea…
・In Jamaican English, a non-alcoholic hot drink:
coffee tea… (=coffee)
MEAL or SOCIAL ENTERTAINMENT
・[In the 18th century, this sense has been made of a custom of taking tea & accompaniments in the afternoon.]
・a meal or social entertainment taken between 3 & 5 pm, in which the usual drink is tea, but sometimes coffee, hot chocolate, or other drink is served. People enjoy tea, snacks, & talks in the tea parties:
afternoon tea…
I took her to tea at the hotel…
・an ordinary meal eaten in the late afternoon or early evening, which includes bread & butter or jams, scones, sandwiches, cooked meat and/or other dishes. Some people call supper “tea,” even if they don’t take tea at that meal. Synonymous phrases: high tea, meat tea, cream tea.
・In Jamaican English, breakfast, or the first solid meal of the day.
The maids had bread and butter for their morning tea…
・[In the 19th century, the verb appeared. Now, rare.]
to serve tea; to entertain at tea; to drink tea; to take tea or a meal that is called tea.
INTEREST
・[This proverbial sense may have been made from the fact that everyone has his/her favorite cup of tea.]
one’s tea or one’s cup of tea is a thing or person that interests or suits them:
Politics is not my cup of tea… (= Politics is a topic I don’t like.)
Are you sure she will be his cup of tea?...
MARIJUANA
・[In the 20th century, this underground slang term appeared in American English, which may have been made from some common points between tea & marijuana. Some people brew marijuana in hot water to drink.]
marijuana, hashish:
She smoked 3 stick of tea...
Related Leaves
～～～～～～～～～ 言葉の遺伝子 ～～～
お茶は中国では
四千年前から飲まれていたと言う。
漢方の歴史は二千五百年だから、
お茶の方が千五百歳年上。
日本には八世紀の奈良時代に伝来。
ヨーロッパ人がお茶に
出会ったのは十六世紀、
オランダ人が輸入を
開始したのが十七世紀。
欧州でのお茶の呼び名は
チャ語族とテ語族に分かれる。
西洋諸語をみると、
先に伝来した
ポルトガル語がチャ語族で
その源流はマカオの広東語。
テ語族ははオランダ人が
西洋に持ち込んだもので、
その源流は福建省の
港湾都市アモイの言葉。
福建省はお茶の産地で、
福建語では
テとチャの中間のような発音をする。
広東語、アモイ語、福建語はすべて
古代中国語からできている。
イングランドにもチャ系の音は伝わったが、
主流にはならず、テ、テーなどの
音が現代音ティーになった。
欧州諸語はほとんど
テ語族に属する。
大英帝国は当初、茶葉の生産を
中国・福建省で行っていたが、
阿片戦争 (1840-42) を機に、
インドに移していった。
それまで Bohea と呼ばれる
茶葉がイングランドで流通していたが、
阿片戦争後に消滅した。
Bohea は Wui、
すなわち、福建省武夷のこと。
武夷は烏龍茶が発明されたところ。
英国ではお茶といえば、
「紅茶」、すなわち、
black tea
のこと。紅茶には
東インド会社の貨物船で
運んでいる最中に
茶葉が自然と黒くなってしまったが、
お湯でこして飲んでみると
おいしかったので、
そのまま本国で販売した、
という自然発生説がある。
真偽は定かではない。
また、欧州各国で
コーヒー・紅茶が普及したのには、
砂糖の普及が関係している。
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