茶 is the character for “tea”. It is made out of 9 strokes.
| Chinese Character | Simplified Version | Bopomofo | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 茶 | 茶 | ㄔㄚˊ | chá |
Definition
Tea
Historical Origins
The Chinese character 茶 (chá) is a phono-semantic compound combining the semantic component 艹, representing “grass” or “plant,” with the phonetic component 余 (OC *la), suggesting its pronunciation. It evolved from the archaic character 荼 (*rlaː), which originally referred to a “bitter plant.”
Over time, 荼 was slightly modified to form 茶, which became the standard character for “tea” in classical texts and remains so today.
Vocabulary with the Character 茶
| Chinese | Bopomofo | Pinyin | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| 茶葉 | ㄔㄚˊ ㄧㄝˋ | chá yè | Tea leaves |
| 茶館 | ㄔㄚˊ ㄍㄨㄢˇ | chá guǎn | Tea house |
| 茶壺 | ㄔㄚˊ ㄏㄨˊ | chá hú | Tea pot |
| 紅茶 | ㄏㄨㄥˊ ㄔㄚˊ | hóng chá | Black tea |
| 綠茶 | ㄌㄩˋ ㄔㄚˊ | lǜ chá | Green tea |
| 茶道 | ㄔㄚˊ ㄉㄠˋ | chá dào | The way of tea (Tea ceremony) |
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