English
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
Noun
bubble tea (countable and uncountable, plural bubble teas)
- 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
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Further reading
Polish
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English bubble tea.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbabl ˈti/
- Syllabification: bu‧bble tea
Noun
bubble tea n (indeclinable)
- bubble tea (sweetened tea with milk and tapioca pearls, often including fruit juice, syrup, and other ingredients)
Further reading