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nunobrito | 8 days ago

Interesting enough, tea is an acronym in portuguese language.

The words T.E.A. were written on boxes carrying the expensive substance from India.

That means: Transporte de Ervas Aromáticas (Transport of Aromatic Herbs)

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triceratops|5 days ago

This sounds like a made-up Internet meme, I'm sorry.

For starters, tea is from China, not India (EDIT: this isn't totally correct, but tea drinking as a habit, rather than as a medicine, didn't exist in India until the colonial era). And why wouldn't they just write "chá" on the boxes?

nunobrito|4 days ago

You seem to be unaware that Portuguese trade was happening in China (Macau) and the main hub connecting to European Portugal was based at India.

Those boxes wouldn't write "chá" because they often contained cinnamon, sugar and many other valueable spices. The point wasn't advertising the specific content, but more to remember that those specific boxes should not be placed on the bottom of the boat, where water would spoil the contents.

netsharc|5 days ago

The Portuguese acronym does sound like an urban legend, but I wonder if there are things that got their names from some random writing on the packaging... Not "Xerox machine" since that's the actual brand. In Indonesian, razorblades are silet, which is how the French pronounce Gilette, but that's also a brand...

readthenotes1|5 days ago

Escape import duties if aromatic herbs had lower fees than cha?

stackghost|5 days ago

That seems about as likely as "fuck" being the acronym "Fornication Under Consent of the King".

pjmlp|5 days ago

Maybe because for us tea leaves fall under herbs, as general purpose description.

However the right wording is Chá, and it needs to be explicitly mentioned of what.

Chá preto - black tea

Chá de ervas - herbs tea

And so on.

IAmBroom|5 days ago

Did you know there's no word for "gullible" in the Portuguese language?