饮茶 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

yǐn drink Simplified

Simplified form of 飲. Pictograph of a person with an open mouth (欠) drinking from a wine vessel (酉). 欠 also represents the sound. The 酉 (wine) component and the open mouth was later reanalyzed as 饣 (eat).

Components

饣 Iconic component

shí eat

饣 is a component form of 食. Used here to depict an open mouth drinking from a wine vessel (酉). Later reanalyzed as 饣 (eat).

欠 Sound Iconic component

qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

Depicts a person bending over with their mouth open.

Change in sound

饮 and 欠 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

chá tea

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

Components

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

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

搽

Historical Pronunciations

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

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart

yǐn drink Traditional

Pictograph of a person with an open mouth (欠) drinking from a wine vessel (酉). 欠 also represents the sound. The 酉 (wine) component and the open mouth was later reanalyzed as 飠 (eat).

Components

飠 Iconic component

eat

飠 is a component form of 食. Used here to depict an open mouth drinking from a wine vessel (酉). Later reanalyzed as 飠 (eat).

欠 Sound Iconic component

qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

Depicts a person bending over with their mouth open.

Change in sound

飲 and 欠 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
飲 *q(r)[ə]mʔ-s
欠 *[k]ʰ(r)om-s