抹茶 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

mǒchá

matcha

mǒ, mā smear

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 末 represents the sound.

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

末 Sound component

mò end

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang		maːd
Unicode	mɑt

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 余 represents the sound.

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

余 Sound component

yú I

Change in sound

茶 and 余 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
茶 *lˤra
余 *la

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	drae	lˤra	(name of a plant)