奶茶
nǎi chá · HSK 3
milk tea
🥛🍵 奶茶 = 奶 (milk) + 茶 (tea)
Straight compound: 奶 nǎi is milk (the 女 radical hints at nursing), 茶 chá is tea. Together: the bubble-tea drink that took over Taiwan and then the world.
奶 — 女 (woman) + 乃 (phonetic)
奶 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 女 'woman' gives the meaning, linking the character to mothers and nursing, while the right side 乃 supplies the sound. It originally referred to breasts and breast milk, and later extended to milk in general and to terms for grandmother (奶奶).
茶 — grass radical 艹 + 余 (phonetic)
茶 combines the grass radical 艹, indicating a plant, with 余 serving as the phonetic component. It originally derived from the older character 荼, which referred broadly to bitter herbs; a stroke was dropped during the Tang dynasty to distinguish the tea plant specifically. Today it means tea.