i learned the word めっちゃ this morning, which Jisho defines as Kansai dialect slang meaning “very,” 'extremely," or “excessively.” while Jisho notes that the word is usually written using kana, i was interested to see that it is written in kanji as 滅茶. i was already familiar with 茶, of course, for tea. but 滅 was new to me; Jisho lists its meanings as “destroy, ruin, overthrow, perish.”
i found it amusing that the word for “extremely” or “excessively” was rooted in the idea of ruining tea; and it immediately reminded me of the WK vocab, 無茶, meaning “absurd,” and written with the kanji for “nothing” and “tea.” as an avid tea drinker myself, its always made a certain intuitive sense it would be “absurd” not to have tea. but now, having learned めっちゃ as well, i’m wondering why all these expressions involving tea, and what additional “tea” words are there that don’t really have to do with tea?
i’m guessing maybe that since Kansai (especially Uji) is an important tea-growing region, maybe more “茶” words come from there? but if @Leebo or anyone else has information about this interesting etymology, i’m certainly curious!