bubble tea

English

Bubble tea

Etymology

A phono-semantic match for boba tea (see that entry for more), ultimately from Cantonese 波霸 (bo1 baa3, “busty woman; tapioca pearl(s)”). The match is from the supposed resemblance of the tapioca pearls to bubbles.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

bubble tea (countable and uncountable, plural bubble teas)

1. Sweetened tea with milk and tapioca pearls, often including fruit juice, syrup and other ingredients.

   Synonyms: boba, boba tea, milk tea, pearl cooler, pearl tea, see also Thesaurus:tea

Translations

milk tea with tapioca balls

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: бъбъл чай m (bǎbǎl čaj), бъбъл тий m (bǎbǎl tij)
• Burmese: ပုလဲနို့လက်ဖက်ရည် (pu.lai:nui.lakhpak-rany)
• Cherokee: ᏚᏆᎷᏒ ᎤᎦᎶᎦ (duqualusv ugaloga)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 珍珠奶茶 (zan¹ zyu¹ naai⁵ ca⁴)

  Mandarin: 珍珠奶茶 (zh) (zhēnzhū nǎichá), 珍奶 (zh) (zhēnnǎi)

• Finnish: kuplatee
• French: thé aux perles (fr) m, thé aux bulles m
• German: Perlentee m
• Hungarian: buboréktea, gyöngyös tea, gyöngytejtea, buboréktejtea, bobadzsúsz, bobatea, boba
• Italian: tè alle bolle m, tè alle perle m
• Japanese: タピオカティー (ja) (tapiokatī), パールミルクティー (pārumirukutī)
• Khmer: តែគុជ (taekuc), តែគជ់ (tae kŭəc)
• Korean: 버블티 (ko) (beobeulti)
• Polish: bubble tea n
• Portuguese: chá de bolhas m, chá perolado m
• Russian: чай с ша́риками m (čaj s šárikami), пе́нистый чай m (pénistyj čaj), жемчу́жный чай m (žemčúžnyj čaj)
• Spanish: té de burbujas (es) m, té de perlas (es) m, té de bobas m, té boba m, cha perlado m, cha aperlado m, cha perlino m, cha con bolitas m
• Swedish: bubbelte (sv) n
• Thai: ชาไข่มุก (th) (chaa-kài-múk), ชานมไข่มุก (th) (chaa-nom-kài-múk)
• Turkish: inci çayı
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: trà trân châu, trà sữa trân châu
• Welsh: te swigod m

Further reading

• bubble tea on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Polish

bubble tea

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bubble tea.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbabl ˈti/
• Syllabification: bu‧bble tea

Noun

bubble tea n (indeclinable)

1. bubble tea (sweetened tea with milk and tapioca pearls, often including fruit juice, syrup, and other ingredients)

Further reading

• “bubble tea”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[1] (in Polish)