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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

茶

chá
tea (plant, leaves)
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 1
  • TOCFL 2
  • radical 艸
  • 10 strokes

Etymology graph

  • inherited
  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *rlaː): semantic 艹 + phonetic 余 (OC *la).

茶, then slightly modified into a more conservative 茶, originates as a graphical modification of archaic 荼 (*rlaː, “bitter plant”), used for “tea” in classical sources. The modern version is unrelated to the bottom right component of 條.

As tea may have originated from Sichuan, where the native Yi people speak Loloish languages, Sagart (1999) suggests that the Old Chinese item was possibly originally borrowed from Proto-Loloish *la¹ (“tea”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s-la (“leaf; tea”). Schuessler (2007) traces its ultimate origin to Proto-Austroasiatic *slaʔ (“leaf”) (in Sidwell's 2024 reconstruction).

Alternatively, Qiu (1988) suggests that it might be a semantic extension of 荼 (*rlaː, “bitter plant”).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • borrowedProto-Loloish*la¹ “tea”
  • meaningChinese艸 “grass”
  • derivedProto-Sino-Tibetan*s-la “leaf; tea”
  • soundChinese余 “I; me”

Related: Proto-Austroasiatic *slaʔ

Words built on it: 奶茶

Meanings

character
  1. tea (plant, leaves)
  2. tea (beverage made by infusing tea leaves in hot water) (Classifier: 杯; 壺／壶)
  3. certain kinds of beverage or liquid food
  4. Chinese medicine
  5. yum cha
  6. a moment (the time it takes to drink a cup of tea)

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 植物名。山茶科茶屬，常綠灌木。單葉互生，長橢圓形，葉緣有鋸齒。秋冬間開白花，果實為蒴果。嫩葉可焙製成各種茶，種子可榨油供食用。
  2. 用茶葉沏成或煮成的飲料。 例：飲茶、品茶
  3. 泛稱熬煮成或沖泡成的飲料。 例：苦茶、麵茶、杏仁茶

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 茶 was written 字形演變

  1. 茶 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  2. 茶 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 茶