boba tea

English

Boba tea

Etymology

From the pinyin romanization of the (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 波霸 (bōbà), from Cantonese 波霸 (bo1 baa3, “breast[s], tapioca pearl[s]”), from 波 (bo1) transcribing English ball and 霸 (baa3, “chief, top”).

Noun

boba tea (countable and uncountable, plural boba teas)

1. Synonym of bubble tea.

References

• “boba, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2018.