茶
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Translingual
Stroke order | |||
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Han character
茶 (radical 140, 艸+6, 9 strokes, cangjie input 廿人木 (TOD), four-corner 44904, composition ⿳艹𠆢朩(GV) or ⿳艹𠆢木(HTJK))
References
- KangXi: page 1029, character 4
- Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 30915
- Dae Jaweon: page 1488, character 1
- Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 5, page 3207, character 2
- Unihan data for U+8336
Chinese
trad. | 茶 | |
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simp. # | 茶 |
Glyph origin
Characters in the same phonetic series (余) (Zhengzhang, 2003) | |
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Old Chinese | |
斜 | *lja, *laː |
茶 | *rlaː |
荼 | *rlaː, *ɦlja, *l'aː |
梌 | *rlaː, *l̥ʰaː, *l'aː |
搽 | *rlaː |
塗 | *rlaː, *l'aː |
佘 | *ɦlja |
賒 | *hljaː |
畬 | *hljaː, *la |
舍 | *hljaːʔ, *hljaːs |
捨 | *hljaːʔ |
騇 | *hljaːʔ, *hljaːs |
涻 | *hljaːs |
稌 | *l̥ʰaː, *l̥ʰaːʔ |
悇 | *l̥ʰaː, *l̥ʰas, *las |
庩 | *l̥ʰaː |
捈 | *l̥ʰaː, *l'aː |
途 | *l'aː |
酴 | *l'aː |
駼 | *l'aː |
鵌 | *l'aː, *la |
涂 | *l'aː, *l'a |
嵞 | *l'aː |
峹 | *l'aː |
筡 | *l'aː, *l̥ʰa |
蒤 | *l'aː |
徐 | *lja |
俆 | *lja |
敘 | *ljaʔ |
漵 | *ljaʔ |
除 | *l'a, *l'as |
篨 | *rla |
滁 | *rla |
蒢 | *rla |
蜍 | *ɦlja, *la |
鵨 | *hljaː |
瑹 | *hlja |
余 | *la |
餘 | *la |
艅 | *la |
狳 | *la |
雓 | *la |
悆 | *las |
Phono-semantic compound (形聲, OC *rlaː) : semantic 艸 + phonetic 余 (OC *la).
茶 originates as a graphical modification of archaic 荼 (OC *rlaː, *ɦlja, *l'aː, “bitter plant”), used for “tea” in classical sources.
Etymology
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 *sla (“leaf”) (compare Proto-Mon-Khmer *slaʔ).
Alternatively, Qiu (1988) suggests that it might be a semantic extension of 荼 (OC *l'aː, “bitter plant”).
Pronunciation
Definitions
茶
- tea (plant, leaves)
- tea (beverage made by infusing tea leaves in hot water)
- beverage (in general)
- Chinese medicine
- 午時茶 / 午时茶 ― wǔshíchá ― (please add an English translation of this example)
- yum cha
- (obsolete) a moment (the time it takes to drink a cup of tea)
- (dialectal Mandarin, Cantonese, Gan, Xiang, Wu) boiled or boiling water
Synonyms
Dialectal synonyms of 開水 (“boiled water”) [map] | ||
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Variety | Location | Words |
Formal (Written Standard Chinese) | 開水 | |
Mandarin | Beijing | 開水 |
Taiwan | 開水 | |
Tianjin | 開水 | |
Jinan | 開水 | |
Xi'an | 開水 | |
Wuhan | 開水 | |
Chengdu | 開水 | |
Yangzhou | 開水, 茶 | |
Hefei | 開水 | |
Malaysia | 滾水, 燒水 | |
Cantonese | Guangzhou | 滾水, 茶 |
Hong Kong | 滾水 | |
Shunde | 滾水 | |
Zhongshan (Shiqi) | 滾水 | |
Doumen (Shangheng Tanka) | 滾水 | |
Taishan | 滾水 | |
Kaiping (Chikan) | 滾水 | |
Dongguan | 滾水 | |
Shaoguan | 開水 | |
Yunfu | 滾水 | |
Yangjiang | 滾水 | |
Xinyi | 滾水 | |
Lianjiang | 滾水 | |
Nanning | 滾水 | |
Gan | Nanchang | 開水, 茶 |
Hakka | Meixian | 滾水 |
Miaoli (N. Sixian) | 滾水 | |
Liudui (S. Sixian) | 滾水 | |
Hsinchu (Hailu) | 滾水 | |
Dongshi (Dabu) | 滾水 | |
Hsinchu (Raoping) | 滾水 | |
Yunlin (Zhao'an) | 滾水 | |
Jin | Taiyuan | 開水 |
Min Bei | Jian'ou | 滾湯, 開水 |
Min Dong | Fuzhou | 開水, 滾湯 |
Min Nan | Xiamen | 滾水 |
Quanzhou | 滾水 | |
Zhangzhou | 滾水 | |
Taipei | 白茶, 滾水 | |
Kaohsiung | 滾水 | |
Tainan | 滾水 | |
Taichung | 滾水 | |
Hsinchu | 滾水 | |
Lukang | 滾水 | |
Sanxia | 滾水 | |
Yilan | 滾水 | |
Kinmen | 滾水 | |
Magong | 滾水 | |
Penang | 滾水 | |
Philippines (Manila) | 滾水 | |
Chaozhou | 滾水 | |
Wu | Shanghai | 開水, 茶水 |
Suzhou | 開水, 茶 | |
Wenzhou | 開水, 茶湯 | |
Xiang | Changsha | 開水, 茶 |
Shuangfeng | 開水 |
Compounds
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Japanese
Readings
Compounds
Etymology
![](../I/m/Tea_soothingr.jpg)
Kanji in this term |
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茶 |
ちゃ Grade: 2 |
kan’yōon |
From various dialects of Middle Chinese 茶 (MC ɖˠa). Compare modern Mandarin reading chá, Hakka chhà, Cantonese caa4.
Usage notes
This term is not used on its own in modern Japanese. For the tea sense, this is used either with the honorific prefix お (o-), or in a compound such as 茎茶 (kukicha, literally “stem tea”) or 緑茶 (ryokucha, “green tea”).
- お茶はいかがですか。
- Ocha wa ikaga desuka.
- How about some tea? (Would you like some tea?)
For the brown sense, this is used with the color suffix 色 (-iro), as in 茶色 (chairo, “brown”, literally “tea color”).
Synonyms
- 茗 (mei) (rare)
Descendants
- → Ainu: チャ (ca)