boba tea
English
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Bubble_tea_of_Chunshuitang.jpg/200px-Bubble_tea_of_Chunshuitang.jpg)
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)
- Synonym of bubble tea.
References
- “boba, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2018.