Also tcha, chau, chaw. [Chinese (Mandarin) ch’a tea. Also in earlier It. cia (Florio), Russ. tchaĭ tea.] The name of TEA in the Mandarin dialect of Chinese, which was occasionally used in English at the first introduction of the beverage. (Some now apply it as a name to the special form of rolled tea used in Central Asia.)
1616. Cocks, Diary, I. 215 (Y.). I sent … a silver chaw pot and a fan to Capt. China wife.
1655. trans. Semedo’s China, 19. Chá is a leaf of a tree in China, about the bigness of Mirtle.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Cha. [Hence in Phillips, Kersey, Bailey.]
1658. Mercurius Polit., 30 Sept. (Advt.) That excellent … drink called by the Chineans Tcha, by other nations Tay alias Tee.
1742. Bailey, Cha, Tea, which the Chinese steeping in Water, use as their common Drink.
1885. Ogilvie, Cha (Hind.), a kind of tea, rolled up like tobacco, which goes to the interior of Asia.
