茶叶
cháyè · HSK 4
tea leaf
🍵🍃 茶叶 = chá (tea) + yè (leaf)
Compound decomposition: 茶 means tea and 叶 means leaf, so 茶叶 literally reads as tea-leaf. The same 叶 shows up in 树叶 (tree leaf) and 落叶 (fallen leaves).
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.