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> English has all three forms: cha or char (both pronounced /ˈtʃɑː/), attested from the late 16th century; tea, from the 17th; and chai, from the 20th. I've ne
by tropdrop 7y ago
> English has all three forms: cha or char (both pronounced /ˈtʃɑː/), attested from the late 16th century; tea, from the 17th; and chai, from the 20th.
I've never, ever encountered "cha" or "char" in my English speaking country (US) - is this something commonly encountered in England?
- wffurr 7y agoIt's a 16th century word that is now extremely rare. From the article, OED definition 3 for "char": https://www.lexico.com/definition/char#h69854260165380 https://www.lexico.com/definition/char#h69854260165380 The main article on tea in the history and origin section has some of the earliest attestations in English cited: "The first record of tea in English came from a letter written by Richard Wickham, who ran an East India Company office in Japan, writing to a merchant in Macao requesting "the best sort of chaw" in 1615. Peter Mundy, a traveller and merchant who came across tea in Fujian in 1637, wrote, "chaa – only water with a kind of herb boyled in it ".[45][46]"
- pinkfoot 7y ago'yum cha' in Cantonese → "drink tea"
- ptsneves 7y agoMacao was a portuguese colony and until today the regular word for tea in portuguese is chá,read cha in English. Just found out that tea in spanish is not chá, which is very interesting given the huge commonality in portuguese and Spanish. Also as per Wikipedia chá is mandar Slightly connected: I Just recently learned frkm Wikipedia that the word coco/côco from the coconut fruit comes from a portuguese folklore figure that i never heard of. Which is weird because I am portuguese and my parents also never heard of any similar folklore. We have a an expression which translates to "break the coco laughing" which i always took to be related to the fruit and now I think it may be a remnant of the folklore figure that gave the name to the coconut fruit. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_(folklore) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_(folklore)
- felipelemos 7y agoI am from Brazil and while I never heard of Coco with that meaning, "Cuca" is a very known evil character from a very popular series of children's books called "Sítio do Picapau Amarelo"[1], and I would assume that its heavily influenced by the same legend, while in case of the books she is a witch and based more based on a dragon or an alligator than a bugbear. You can see it here from one of the several TV adaptation. [2] Also, based on the series there is this popular music "A Cuca te pega", or in a free English translation: "The Cuca catch you". [3] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADtio_do_Picapau_Amarelo_(fictional_farm) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%ADtio_do_Picapau_Amarel... [2] https://youtu.be/bIiujEcXcRw https://youtu.be/bIiujEcXcRw [3] https://youtu.be/y4YLN0ZQdyk https://youtu.be/y4YLN0ZQdyk
- stevekemp 7y agoCha is still commonly used in the UK, both in the tea-sense, and in the cleaner-sense (though charlady, or person who chars would also be commonish): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charwoman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charwoman
- StormChaser_5 7y agoIn Ireland you do sometimes hear someone looking for a "cuppa cha". Not common but you do hear it
- robjan 7y agoIn the UK cha/char (never seen it written down, so don't know how to spell it) is a relatively common colloquial term for tea.
- emmelaich 7y ago"cha" is absolutely recognised in Australia for tea. Maybe somewhat less these days, but still there.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]