Food & drink

dim sum

Dim sum is Cantonese for 點心, literally 'touch the heart': in the Tang histories it is a verb for taking a snack, and it became the name for the small dishes of the Cantonese teahouse. The same word became lunch in Korean (jeomsim), breakfast in Vietnamese (điểm tâm), a Zen snack in Japanese, and an Australian dumpling, the dim sim.

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The road to English

From Middle Chinese to Mandarin Chinese

From Middle Chinese to Japanese

From Middle Chinese to Korean

From Middle Chinese to Vietnamese

From Cantonese to Australian English

From English to French

From English to German

945 CEMiddle Chinese

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

dim sum

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The road to English

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