bohea, a. and n.
(bəʊˈhiː)
Also 8 bohee.
[ad. Chinese Wu-i(shan) the Wu-i hills in north of Fuhkien. Morrison gives ‘Bohea Tea, wu i cha’ (cha = tea), and Edkins, Mandarin Gram. 89, says that the Fuhkien dialect uses b for w or v. By some 18th c. writers accented ˈbohea.]
A. adj. Of the Wu-i hills, whence black tea was first brought to England; applied also to tea of similar quality grown elsewhere.
| 1704 Steele Lying Lover ii. (1747) 36 Set Chairs, and the Bohea Tea, and leave us. 1718 Quincy Compl. Disp. 116 Bohee Tea.—This is one of those things which Luxury has introduced into Diet. 1773 Gentl. Mag. XLIII. 607 The infusion of the leaves of the same plant, which..is like common bohea-tea. |
B. n.
1. = Bohea tea. The name was given in the beginning of the 18th c. to the finest kinds of black tea; but the quality now known as ‘Bohea’ is the lowest, being the last crop of the season.
| 1701 J. Cunningham Voy. Chusan. ii. in Phil. Trans. XXIII. 1205 The Bohe (or Voiii, so call'd of some Mountains in the Province of Fokien)..is the very first bud gather'd in the beginning of March. 1727–8 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) I. 172 Tea of all prices—Bohea from thirteen to twenty shillings, and green from twelve to thirty. 1852 M{supc}Culloch Dict. Comm. 1290 The black teas..beginning with the lowest qualities: Bohea, Congou, Souchong, and Pekoe. |
2. An infusion of this tea taken as a beverage.
| 1706 Estcourt Fair Examp. i. i. 10 To dine at my Lord Mayor's, and after Dinner be entertain'd with a Dish of Bohea by my Lady Mayoress. 1714 Pope Rape Lock iv. 156 In some lone isle, or distant northern land..Where none learn ombre, none e'er taste bohea! 1728 Young Love Fame vi. (1757) 152 How two red lips affected Zephyrs blow, To cool the Bohea, and inflame the Beau. 1841 L. Hunt Seer (1864) 19 Thy unsophisticated cup of bohea. 1851 Thackeray Eng. Hum. v. (1858) 273 Richardson's goddess was..fed on muffins and bohea. |