This sounds like a made-up Internet meme, I'm sorry.
For starters, tea is from China, not India (EDIT: this isn't totally correct, but tea drinking as a habit, rather than as a medicine, didn't exist in India until the colonial era). And why wouldn't they just write "chá" on the boxes?
You seem to be unaware that Portuguese trade was happening in China (Macau) and the main hub connecting to European Portugal was based at India.
Those boxes wouldn't write "chá" because they often contained cinnamon, sugar and many other valueable spices. The point wasn't advertising the specific content, but more to remember that those specific boxes should not be placed on the bottom of the boat, where water would spoil the contents.
I'm aware tea has different names in different languages. I believe the rule is "cha if by land, tea if by water" (or maybe the other way around). That's not what I'm talking about.
Almost every purported etymology of a well-established word being an acronym of an even older phrase is an urban legend. Another example: "fuck" being an acronym for "fornication under consent of the king". It's baloney.
I'm not talking about modern words like "scuba" or "laser" obviously.
> That was indeed part of what you were talking about.
How so?
Even if the tea came from different ports in China, it was going to Portugal. The crates would be labeled in Portuguese. In which case there's no reason to write "cha" or "té" based on where the crate was shipping from. After the first time someone named tea in Portuguese it should always be "cha".
Or the crate would be labeled 茶 and whatever is the Chinese character for "cha", which no one in Portugal could read.
Either way the "tea" etymology story falls apart. There's no reason for it to be labeled "tea".
The Portuguese acronym does sound like an urban legend, but I wonder if there are things that got their names from some random writing on the packaging... Not "Xerox machine" since that's the actual brand. In Indonesian, razorblades are silet, which is how the French pronounce Gilette, but that's also a brand...
Not only are most folk etymologies about acronyms pure hooey, but most historical explanations that involve tax-dodging are, too.
Take for instance the upper-story medieval buildings that jut out over the first floor. NEVER done for tax reasons; ALWAYS done for a perfectly simply structural reasons. For the tax story to have an ounce of truth, there would have to have been invariant, multi-country, identical tax laws about footprints of houses.
She sounds like an impressive person.
Interesting enough, tea is an acronym in portuguese language.
The words T.E.A. were written on boxes carrying the expensive substance from India.
That means: Transporte de Ervas Aromáticas (Transport of Aromatic Herbs)
This sounds like a made-up Internet meme, I'm sorry.
For starters, tea is from China, not India (EDIT: this isn't totally correct, but tea drinking as a habit, rather than as a medicine, didn't exist in India until the colonial era). And why wouldn't they just write "chá" on the boxes?
You seem to be unaware that Portuguese trade was happening in China (Macau) and the main hub connecting to European Portugal was based at India.
Those boxes wouldn't write "chá" because they often contained cinnamon, sugar and many other valueable spices. The point wasn't advertising the specific content, but more to remember that those specific boxes should not be placed on the bottom of the boat, where water would spoil the contents.
It's 'cha' in northern Mandarin, but 'tê' (茶) in southern Hokkien, so it depended on which trading port you bought from.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tea#/media/File%3ANames_for_t...
Also, 'oo long' is black dragon.
I'm aware tea has different names in different languages. I believe the rule is "cha if by land, tea if by water" (or maybe the other way around). That's not what I'm talking about.
Almost every purported etymology of a well-established word being an acronym of an even older phrase is an urban legend. Another example: "fuck" being an acronym for "fornication under consent of the king". It's baloney.
I'm not talking about modern words like "scuba" or "laser" obviously.
> That's not what I'm talking about.
That was indeed part of what you were talking about.
I agree that most folk etymologies involving acronyms are wrong, but don't move your goalposts.
> That was indeed part of what you were talking about.
How so?
Even if the tea came from different ports in China, it was going to Portugal. The crates would be labeled in Portuguese. In which case there's no reason to write "cha" or "té" based on where the crate was shipping from. After the first time someone named tea in Portuguese it should always be "cha".
Or the crate would be labeled 茶 and whatever is the Chinese character for "cha", which no one in Portugal could read.
Either way the "tea" etymology story falls apart. There's no reason for it to be labeled "tea".
The Portuguese acronym does sound like an urban legend, but I wonder if there are things that got their names from some random writing on the packaging... Not "Xerox machine" since that's the actual brand. In Indonesian, razorblades are silet, which is how the French pronounce Gilette, but that's also a brand...
Escape import duties if aromatic herbs had lower fees than cha?
It would take just one customs inspector opening up one mislabeled box and the game would be up.
But then it could end up in the Supreme Court [0].
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_v._Hedden
Not only are most folk etymologies about acronyms pure hooey, but most historical explanations that involve tax-dodging are, too.
Take for instance the upper-story medieval buildings that jut out over the first floor. NEVER done for tax reasons; ALWAYS done for a perfectly simply structural reasons. For the tax story to have an ounce of truth, there would have to have been invariant, multi-country, identical tax laws about footprints of houses.
Time to update https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_tea then?
That explanation is… highly unlikely.
Maybe because for us tea leaves fall under herbs, as general purpose description.
However the right wording is Chá, and it needs to be explicitly mentioned of what.
Chá preto - black tea
Chá de ervas - herbs tea
And so on.
That seems about as likely as "fuck" being the acronym "Fornication Under Consent of the King".
Did you know there's no word for "gullible" in the Portuguese language?