2126: Chai vs. Tea Oct 10, 2020

Around the world, lots of languages use a world like 'tea' and many others use 'chai' to describe the same thing; English uses both words but to describe the different preparation of the same plant-leaves. The word 'chai' comes to English via Arabic or Russian, ultimately from Mandarin ch'a, which also led to the now rare 'cha' or 'char' used in the 16th century. The word 'tea' came in the 17th century as a later variant (pronounced [tei] like 'pay') and also comes from this Chinese root, but through the Malay 'teh' (via the Dutch who held colonies there). The words in language like German, French, Dutch and so on that have the T come from this root, and the others like Greek, Farsi, Russian, and Arabic take the more direct Chinese root.

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