Origin and meaning of the word "Tea"

In different provinces this word is pronounced differently, it is sometimes heard as "ch'ha" and "tskha", sometimes as "ch'ya" or "t'a". At the same time, green leaves collected from tea bushes before they undergo factory processing are called "ch'a", ready-made dry black tea - "u - cha" and a drink from it - "ch'a - i".

But the hieroglyph for tea (茶) is the same throughout China. It is one of the most ancient hieroglyphs, created in the 5th century, when the term itself, the word "tea", arose. All other nations of the world borrowed their names for tea from the Chinese. Of course, they slightly distorted the Chinese name, since they heard and pronounced it differently. In addition, it was important from which part of China the tea came to a particular country.

Teas have been coming to Russia from Northern China since time immemorial – either from Hankou or via Hankou, and therefore the Russian word “chai” is closest to the Northern Chinese, capital, or so-called Mandarin pronunciation. Most of the peoples of our country and such Slavic peoples as the Bulgarians, Czechs, and Serbs adopted this name from the Russians. The Portuguese, who were the first Western Europeans to become acquainted with tea and began to export it from the south of China, from Canton, which was one of the capitals, call tea “chaa” – also according to the Mandarin pronunciation. The peoples of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, where tea drinking penetrated from Western China, call tea “chhai” or “jai”. In Central Asia, where tea was previously called “ha”, “chai” or “choi” has now become commonly used. The Mongols, who became acquainted with tea through Tibet, call it “tsai”; Kalmyks, who learned about tea from the Mongols, say "qia"; and Arabs, who bought tea in Xinjiang, say "shai".

The Japanese and Koreans, neighboring Eastern China, pronounce the word "tea" as "t'a". This is where the name of tea came from among most European nations, who first became acquainted with tea either through Southeast China or through Japan and exported it from Amoy, which is why it was the Amoy pronunciation - "t'a" or "tea" - that was used at the end of the 18th century as the basis for the botanical Latin name of tea (Thea), and the English began to pronounce this word as "ti", and the French, Italians, Spaniards, Romanians, Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Danes, Norwegians - as "te".

English and Dutch sailors first established their contacts with China through the ports of the South-Eastern part of the Chinese Empire and later received permission from the Chinese government to visit only these ports and not to try to penetrate into other parts of China. These ports were Guangzhou (Canton), Samyn (Amoy) and Fuzhou, which is why the Chinese teas exported from there were called Cantonese or Amoy teas in Europe. Among African peoples, Arabic, English, French or Portuguese versions of the name for tea are widespread - each directly depending on who first brought it to a particular African country.

The Polish name for tea is quite special – “herbata”. This word is not Polish, but a slightly modified Latin “herba”, which means “grass” (remember “herbarium”). The fact is that tea was used in Poland for a long time exclusively as a medicine, it was not widely used as a drink, and therefore was sold exclusively in pharmacies. Pharmacists gave tea this name, believing that tea leaves were made from a special type of “Chinese grass”. However, this was also the case in many other countries in the 17th century.

V. V. Pokhlebkin. Tea, its history, properties and use