tea

See also: Appendix:Variations of "tea"

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

tea

A cup of tea in Scotland.

Names like cha in red, names like tea in blue, and other names in grey

Etymology 1

First appears c. 1655, in the writings of Álvaro Semedo. 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, the first element of lahpet), from same Proto-Sino-Tibetan root; see discussion of cognates.

Cognates

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; see translations. These are from one of two proximate sources, reflected in the phonological shape: forms with a stop (e.g. /t/) are derived from Min Nan tê, while forms with an affricate (e.g. /tʃ/) are derived from other Sinitic languages, like Mandarin chá or Cantonese caa4 (all written as 茶). Different languages borrowed one or the other form (specific language and point in time varied), reflecting trade ties, generally Min Nan tê if by ocean trade from Fujian, Cantonese caa4 if by ocean trade from Guangdong, or northern Chinese chá if by overland trade or by ocean trade from India.^[1]

Thus Western and Northern European languages borrowed tê (with the exception of Portuguese, which uses chá; despite being by ocean trade, their source was in Macao, not Amoy), while chá 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 the tê/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, though chá 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 Malay teh and ca.

Sense 10 (“information, especially gossip”) is originally from T standing for truth, which evolved into tea.

Alternative forms

tay

Pronunciation

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

Noun

tea (countable and uncountable, plural teas)

(uncountable) The tea plant (Camellia sinensis); (countable) a variety of this plant.
Darjeeling tea is grown in India.
(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.

Not for all the tea in China.
(uncountable) The drink made by infusing these dried leaves or buds in hot water.
Would you like some tea?
- 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
  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.
Any drink which is similar to Camellia sinensis tea in some way:
- 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, page 141:
  Mushroom Tea / 8 cups water / 1 cup dried reishi mushroom pieces [...] 1. Start by making Reishi Mushroom Tea: Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan. 2. Add the reishi mushroom pieces […]
2. (uncountable) Any similar drink made by infusing parts of various other plants.
  Hyponym: herbal tea
  
  camomile tea; mint tea
  - 2017 January 3, Gilles Diederichs, My Anti-Stress Year: 52 Weeks of Soothing Activities and Wellness Advice, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
    Curcuma tea relieves colds […]
4. (uncountable, in combination) Meat stock served as a hot drink.
  beef tea
(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.
We'd like one tea and one coffee, please.
(uncountable, UK) A light midafternoon meal, typically but not necessarily including tea.
I won't make it to the breakfast event, but I'll see you at the 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 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC, section I, page 16:
  Tea was a very special institution, revolving as it did around the ceremony and worship of Toast. 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.
(uncountable, Commonwealth, Ireland) 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.
(cricket) The break in play between the second and third sessions.
Australia were 490 for 7 at tea on the second day.
- 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, in The 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.
(slang, dated) Synonym of marijuana.
- 1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 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, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Them First Kicks are a Killer”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), 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.
- 1948 June, Anatole Broyard, “A Portrait of the Hipster”, in Partisan Review:
  Jive music and tea were the two most important components of the hipster's life.
- 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.
(slang, especially gay slang and African-American Vernacular) Information, especially gossip.
Spill the tea on that drama, hon.
- 1992, Lea DeLaria, “Ms. DeLaria's Dating Tips for Dykes”, in Bulldyke 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 the tea 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 the tea 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”, in Distractify‎^[2]:
  For those looking for tea 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.

Usage notes

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

Synonyms

(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

(beverage): see Thesaurus:tea

Derived terms

Descendants

Gullah: tea
Jamaican Creole: tea
→ Abenaki: ti
→ Chickasaw: tii'
→ Cocopa: ṭi·
→ Cornish: té
→ Cree:
Canadian syllabic 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
→ Scottish Gaelic: tì, teatha
→ Tamil: டீ (ṭī)
→ Telugu: టీ (ṭī)
→ Unami: ti
→ Welsh: te

Translations

See tea/translations § Noun.

Verb

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

(intransitive) 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.
(intransitive) To take afternoon tea (a 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 […]
(transitive) To give tea to.
- 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

Semantic loan from Chinese 茶 (chá, “tea”).

Noun

tea (plural teas)

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

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

^ The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, “Chapter 138: Tea”, by Östen Dahl

Anagrams

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

Basque

Noun

tea

absolutive singular of te

Chinese

Etymology

From English tea.

Pronunciation

Cantonese (Jyutping): ti¹

Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
  - Jyutping: ti¹
  - Yale: tī
  - Cantonese Pinyin: ti¹
  - Guangdong Romanization: ti¹
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʰiː⁵⁵/

Noun

tea

(Hong Kong Cantonese) afternoon tea (Classifier: 個／个 c)

Derived terms

high tea
食tea (sik⁶ ti¹)

Ese

Noun

tea

feces; excrement

Estonian

Verb

tea

present indicative connegative of teadma
second-person singular imperative of teadma