Interesting! A quick search reveals this as a summary of the different
routes from the original source - Chinese (it was tempting to think we call
it China because it's where chai comes from, but that is too fanciful).
www.etymonline.com
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tea - 1655, earlier chaa (1598, from Port. cha), from Malay teh and directly
from Chinese (Amoy dialect) t'e, in Mandarin ch'a. The distribution of the
different forms of the word reflects the spread of use of the beverage. The
modern Eng. form, along with Fr. the, Sp. te, Ger. Tee, etc., derive via Du.
thee from the Amoy form, reflecting the role of the Dutch as the chief
importers of the leaves (through the Dutch East India Company, from 1610).
The practice of drinking tea was first introduced to England 1644. The Port.
form came via Macao, and Rus. chai, Pers. cha, Gk. tsai, Ar. shay and Turk.
çay all came overland from the Mandarin form.
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Piers
-----Original Message-----
From: olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:olympus-owner@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Winsor Crosby
Sent: 06 September 2004 22:13
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [OM] Re: OT Re: Re: excessive quoting
I thought it Chinese for tea.
Winsor
Long Beach, CA
USA
On Sep 6, 2004, at 2:04 PM, Chris Barker wrote:
> It was interesting wasn't it? However, I should question the idea
> that "chai" is of Russian origin. It is either Arabic or Hindi;
> perhaps it therefore becomes of Russian origin because all
> Indo-European languages have a common origin ...
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