Darjeeling

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A fragrant, delicately flavored black tea grown in the hills of the Darjeeling district of northeastern India ; a deep reddish-brown shade resembling the liquor of that tea ; a hill town in the Himalayan foothills of West Bengal known for its tea estates
2. A premium black tea produced on high mountain estates in the Darjeeling area of India ; a reddish-brown color like the brewed leaves of that tea ; a famous Himalayan hill station and tea-growing town in the Indian state of West Bengal
3. Black tea cultivated in the Darjeeling region of the Indian Himalayas ; a dusky reddish-brown hue named after that tea ; the mountain town in West Bengal that gives the tea its name and is a noted hill station

Etymology: Darjeeling tea is named after a hill town in the Himalayan foothills of northern India, and the town's name is a Tibetan phrase meaning "land of the thunderbolt." The Tibetan "rdo rje" means "vajra," the thunderbolt-shaped ritual implement of Buddhism, and "gling" means "land." The name passed into Nepali as "dārjiliṅ," and English took it from there, so the tea and the town share a name that is really a Buddhist religious term carried across two languages. The name is a compound built from two Tibetan words, not a single term, which is why it looks unfamiliar when read in English. The place itself sits in a region where Tibetan and Nepali speakers have long lived side by side, and the Nepali form is the immediate source of the English spelling.