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I'm confused, tea and cha are the same word. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea

• shakna 9y ago
  Yes, and that's pointed out: > Both versions come from China. > The term cha (茶) > But in the Min Nan variety of Chinese, spoken in the coastal province of Fujian, the character is pronounced te. The same word, originating in China, was brought by trade routes around the world, with slight variations in pronunciation, resulting in two words.
  • Grustaf 9y ago
    Then the article title is very misleading...
    • shakna 9y ago
      I think, from what I can guess, that you are reading the wrong context from the title. We have two words for tea, today, because of one word in the past. Most languages today use those at least one of those two words. It may have been one word in China, but it isn't in the languages that it influenced.
      • Grustaf 9y ago
        I know the history of the word very well, and I understand that clickbait headings have to simplify. But if you want to call CHA and TEA different words, in what sense are TEA and THE (French) the same word? I would say they are either all the same word (how I would phrase it) or all different - since they are in different languages. But this is all semantics, not very interesting really.