お茶
おちゃ · ocha · JLPT N5 · noun
tea
🍵 お茶 = polite o + cha, the same word as chai and Chinese chá
The お is an honorific prefix added out of respect; the core word is 茶 (cha). Cha travelled overland from China, giving chai, while the Min dialect form te went by sea and became English tea. So ocha is literally honourable cha.
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.