The word for “tea” in many languages is of Sinitic origin (due to China being the origin of the plant), and thus there are many cognates; seetranslations. These are from one of two proximate sources, reflected in the phonological shape: forms with a stop (e.g./t/) are derived from Min Nantê, while forms with an affricate (e.g./tʃ/) are derived from other Sinitic languages, like Mandarinchá or Cantonesecaa4 (all written as茶). Different languages borrowed one or the other form (specific language and point in time varied), reflecting trade ties, generally Min Nantê if by ocean trade from Fujian, Cantonesecaa4 if by ocean trade from Guangdong, or northern Chinesechá if by overland trade or by ocean trade from India.[1]
Thus Western and Northern European languages borrowedtê (with the exception of Portuguese, which useschá; despite being by ocean trade, their source was inMacao, not Amoy), whilechá borrowings are used over a very large geographical area of Eurasia and Africa: Southern and Eastern Europe, and on through Turkish, Arabic, North and East Africa, Persian, Central Asian, and Indic languages. In Europe thetê/chá line is Italian/Slovene, Hungarian/Romanian, German/Czech, Polish/Ukrainian, Baltics/Russian, Finnish/Karelian, Northern Sami/Inari Sami.tê was also borrowed in European trade stops in Southern India and coastal Africa, thoughchá borrowings are otherwise more prevalent in these regions, via Arabic or Indic, due to earlier trade. The situation in Southeast Asia is complex due to multiple influences, and some languages borrowed both forms, such as Malayteh andca.
Sense 10 (“information, especially gossip”) is originally fromT standing fortruth, which evolved intotea.
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.
2019 February 12, Maryea Flaherty,Anti-Inflammatory Drinks for Health: 100 Smoothies, Shots, Teas, Broths, and Seltzers to Help Prevent Disease, Lose Weight, Increase Energy, Look Radiant, Reduce Pain, and More!, Simon and Schuster,→ISBN, page141:
MushroomTea / 8 cups water / 1 cup dried reishi mushroom pieces [...] 1. Start by making Reishi MushroomTea: Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. 2. Add the reishi mushroom pieces[…]
I won't make it to the breakfast event, but I'll see you at thetea.
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 picnictea it would have been delightful.
Tea was a very special institution, revolving as it did around the ceremony and worship ofToast. In a place[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.
2009, “What do cricketers eat at tea? When is it safe to flush on the train? What's a plujit?”,Notes and queries: Life and style, inThe Guardian[1]:
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.
1940,Raymond Chandler,Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published2010, page103:
So they were evidence. Evidence of what? That a man occasionally smoked a stick oftea, 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[…].
1992,Lea DeLaria, “Ms. DeLaria's Dating Tips for Dykes”, inBulldyke in a China Shop (spoken-word comedy album):
Now I've told you that I've taken LSD, and you think I'm gonna leap through a window or something like that. And you know why that is, that's because of Art Linkletter's daughter.... But let me give you thetea on her, see, she took LSD, realized she was Art Linkletter's daughter, and threw herself out of the window!
2015, Sonya Shuman,Doors of the Church Are Open: Smoke & Mirrors by Sonya Shuman:
"What's thetea on you and China? Where she at Alicia? You should know where ya baby at."
2024 July 23, Sara Belcher, “JD Vance's Public Venmo Will Make You Want to Private Yours”, inDistractify[2]:
For those looking fortea on someone, one of the first places you should look is their Venmo account. ... Though most people have found out how to make all of their transactions private, preventing snooping eyes from seeing how many times they've gone out for brunch in the last month, JD Vance hasn't seemed to figure that out yet.
1877,The Bicycling Times and Tourist's Gazette, page38:
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 weteaed moderately[…]
1858, Benedict Cruiser, “Of the Agonising Process by which that which was once a Bower of Bliss was converted into a Cave of Despair”, inGeorge Augustus Sala, editor,How I Tamed Mrs. Cruiser, London: James Blackwood, page129:
And they’ve got Professor Hummums with ’em, the great Everlasting Star of the Nineteenth Century, which he has breakfasted and dined andtea’d and supped here ever since yesterday.
1863, chapter I, inHospital 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, page25:
In half an hour they had all beentea’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;
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, page109:
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’dtea’d everyone and Oz had breakfasted them,[…]
Amoment, 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.
It. mando que todollos lenços delgados etteas 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 theclothes of Reims to be taken by Garcia Perez, who should make them into clothes for the altar of Saint Mary
tea inBárczi, Géza andLászló Országh.A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.:ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992:→ISBN
La reunión terminaba siempre cuando se iban a apagar lasteas, cuya duración era de cuatro o cinco horas.
The meeting ended whenever thetorches, whose duration was about four or five hours, were going to go out.
2013 August 18, Gertrudis María Glück, “El Viaje del Lector: Alemania”, inClarín[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 conteas 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 withtorches that filled closed environments with smoke.
