Link Centre Dictionary

tea

UK/tiː/ US/tʰɪj ~ tʰiː/ very common slang uk us

noun

1.

a beverage made by steeping tea leaves in water

  • “iced tea is a cooling drink”
2.

a light midafternoon meal of tea and sandwiches or cakes

  • “an Englishman would interrupt a war to have his afternoon tea”
Synonyms
3.

dried leaves of the tea shrub; used to make tea

  • “the store shelves held many different kinds of tea”
  • “they threw the tea into Boston harbor”
Synonyms
4.

a reception or party at which tea is served

  • “we met at the Dean”
5.

a tropical evergreen shrub or small tree extensively cultivated in e.g. China and Japan and India; source of tea leaves

  • “tea has fragrant white flowers”
Synonyms

Origin

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...

Phrases

  • Abyssinian tea
  • afternoon tea
  • Algerian tea
  • all the tea in China
  • Appalachian tea
  • Arabian tea
  • arrowroot tea
  • balm tea

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.