茶

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))

• 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

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.

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”).

茶

1. tea (plant, leaves)
2. tea (beverage made by infusing tea leaves in hot water)

   綠茶 / 绿茶  ―  lǜchá  ―  green tea

3. beverage (in general)

   涼茶 / 凉茶  ―  liángchá  ―  (please add an English translation of this example)

4. Chinese medicine

   午時茶 / 午时茶  ―  wǔshíchá  ―  (please add an English translation of this example)

5. yum cha

   早茶  ―  zǎochá  ―  (please add an English translation of this example)

6. (obsolete) a moment (the time it takes to drink a cup of tea)
7. (dialectal Mandarin, Cantonese, Gan, Xiang, Wu) boiled or boiling water

Others:

• See also the descendants in Appendix:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/s-la.

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. tea

• Go-on: じゃ (ja)^{←ぢや (dya, historical)}
• Kan-on: た (ta)
• Tō-on: さ (sa, Jōyō)
• Kan’yō-on: ちゃ (cha, Jōyō)

茶 (cha): a cup of tea.

From various dialects of Middle Chinese 茶 (MC ɖˠa). Compare modern Mandarin reading chá, Hakka chhà, Cantonese caa⁴.

• Kan’yōyomi
  • (Tokyo) ちゃ [chà] (Heiban – [0])[1]
  • IPA^(key): [t͡ɕa̠]

茶 (hiragana ちゃ, rōmaji cha)

1. tea (not used in isolation in modern Japanese)
2. brown

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 (ちゃ)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”).

• 茗 (めい) (mei) (rare)

• → Ainu: チャ (ca)

• 湯 (ゆ) (yu): hot water; (by extension) tea

茶 • (da, cha) (hangeul 다, 차, revised da, cha, McCune–Reischauer ta, ch'a, Yale ta, cha)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

茶 (trà, chè)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.