Char Is Burning, a Fish, a Cleaner and a Cup of Tea
To char is to scorch something. Three other chars are unrelated, and one of them is tea.
To char is to burn something so it blackens without being consumed. Four unrelated words share the spelling. The burning verb is a back-formation from *charcoal*. A *char* is also an arctic fish, a *charwoman* is a cleaner from Old English *cerr*, a turn of work, and *char* is British slang for tea, from Mandarin *chá* by way of sailors. In computing, *char* is short for character, a single letter of data.
- To scorch. *Charred wood.*
- An arctic fish. *Arctic char.*
- A cleaner (British). *A charwoman.*
- Tea (British slang). *A cup of char.*
- A character (computing). *A char array.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | char | Charring. |
| Adjective | charred | Charred. |
| Noun | char | A char. |
| Compound | charcoal | Charcoal. |
| Compound | charwoman | A charwoman. |
- The fire charred the beams.Burning.
- Arctic char is a cold-water fish.Fish.
- A nice cup of char.Slang.
Two words for tea worldwide
- Cha family — from Mandarin *chá*, spread overland: chai, chay, char
- Te family — from Min Chinese *te*, spread by sea: tea, thé, Tee
- Overland traders carried the first form to Russia, Persia and India
- Dutch sea traders carried the second to western Europe
- British slang char came back by sea but from the overland word
The verb is a back-formation from *charcoal*. The tea sense is from Mandarin *chá*. The cleaner is Old English *cerr*, a turn.
Why is tea called char in British slang?
From Mandarin chá, picked up by sailors and traders. It is the same root as chai.
What is a charwoman?
A woman hired for household cleaning, from Old English cerr, meaning a turn or spell of work.