お茶

Etymology
Compound of.

Noun

 * 1) tea, usually green tea
 * 2) tea ceremony
 * 3) snack with tea or coffee
 * 4) the act of having tea
 * 1) the act of having tea

Usage notes

 * Using お茶 is considered neutral (i.e., neither polite nor impolite), while the bare is markedly impolite to refer to tea. The prefix  was originally an honorific, but is now part of the word in modern Japanese.

Verb

 * 1)  go out for tea

Usage notes
お茶 generally refers to a cup of hot green tea. In general, black tea is referred to as, though it can be implicitly included within the term お茶, which literally just means "tea."

The honorific in お茶 is normally written in hiragana, though you will see it from time to time in more formal or official writing as  (as in ). Also, お茶 is one of the unusual cases of the honorific (or ) that can be used to refer to anyone, including the speaker. See the usage note at.

茶する without the honorific is rarely used.