English words from Chinese origin

You probably know that English has influenced Chinese — 沙发 Shāfā (sofa), 巧克力 Qiǎokèlì (chocolate), 咖啡 Kāfēi (coffee). But the borrowing goes both ways, and in some cases it goes back much further than you’d expect.

The ketchup sitting on your table? Chinese. The tea in your cup? Chinese. The act of “kowtowing”? Also Chinese. A surprising number of common English words have their roots in Chinese dialects — carried into English by centuries of trade, travel, and contact between cultures.

For Mandarin learners, these words are more than fun trivia. They’re a window into how language travel works, why dialects matter, and how the words you already know in English can help you understand Chinese.

Before we dive in, a note on terminology and accuracy.

Table of Contents

Loanwords, Not Cognates — And Why the Distinction Matters

Technically, a cognate is a word that shares a common ancestral origin with a word in another language (like English “father” and German “Vater,” both descended from Proto-Germanic). These Chinese-to-English words are more accurately called loanwords or borrowings — words that one language adopted directly from another.

Also worth noting: many of these words entered English not from Mandarin, but from Hokkien (spoken in Fujian province and across Southeast Asia), Cantonese, or Chinese Pidgin English — a simplified contact language used in trade. This matters because Mandarin speakers will sometimes not recognise the Chinese origin at all from the sound. We’ll flag this where relevant.

One more caveat: etymology is rarely clean. For several words below, there are competing theories. We’ll tell you where the evidence is strong and where it’s genuinely uncertain.

The Word That Explains Everything: 茶 (Chá) — Tea

Before the food list, let’s start with the most important Chinese loanword in English history: tea.

Tea comes from the Hokkien Chinese word 茶 (tê), spoken in the coastal Fujian province. In Mandarin, the same character is pronounced chá — which is why Arabic, Persian, Russian, Hindi, and Turkish all use a “cha/chai” form of the word (they borrowed it overland from Mandarin-speaking China). English, Dutch, and French all use the “tea/thé/thee” form — because they borrowed it by sea, via Hokkien-speaking traders.

The character is the same: 茶. The split between “tea” and “cha” in the world’s languages is essentially a map of the two great trade routes out of China.

Chinese	Pinyin	English form	Route into English
茶	chá (Mandarin) / tê (Hokkien)	tea	Via Dutch sea trade from Hokkien-speaking Fujian

Food-Related English Words From Chinese

English Word	Chinese	Pinyin	Notes
Tofu	豆腐	dòufu	Literally “bean curd.” Entered English directly from Mandarin/Japanese. One of the cleaner etymologies on this list.
Ketchup	鲑汁	kê-tsiap (Hokkien)	Originally meant fermented fish sauce in the Hokkien dialect of Fujian province — nothing to do with tomatoes. Traders brought it to Southeast Asia, then to Europe in the 17th century. The tomato version came later. The Chinese character 鲑 (archaically meaning “preserved fish”) + 汁 (“sauce/juice”). Note: some sources incorrectly list this as 茄汁 — that is a Cantonese folk etymology and is not the accepted origin.
Dim sum	点心	diǎnxīn	Literally “touch the heart.” From Cantonese. In Mandarin it’s the same characters, pronounced diǎnxīn. A small bite, a small gift of food — the name captures the idea perfectly.
Wonton	馄饨	húntún	The English spelling comes from Cantonese (wàhn tān). The Mandarin húntún sounds quite different — a useful reminder that “wonton” and “húntún” are the same word written with the same characters.
Chow mein	炒面	chǎomiàn	Literally “stir-fried noodles.” From Cantonese. In Mandarin: chǎomiàn — and now you know how to order it in China.
Bok choy	白菜	báicài (Mandarin) / baak choi (Cantonese)	Literally “white vegetable.” The English word comes from the Cantonese pronunciation. In Mandarin, 白菜 most commonly refers to napa/Chinese cabbage; the smaller variety often called bok choy in Western supermarkets is more specifically 小白菜 (xiǎo báicài) in Mandarin.
Kung pao chicken	宫保鸡丁	gōngbǎo jīdīng	Named after 丁宝桢 (Dīng Bǎozhēn), a Qing dynasty governor whose title was 宫保 (gōngbǎo, “palace guardian”). A dish named after a person — and the name stuck globally.
Lychee	荔枝	lìzhī	From Cantonese lai-ji. The Mandarin lìzhī sounds different but comes from the same characters. A good example of how the same Chinese word sounds very different across dialects.
Kumquat	金橘	jīnjú (Mandarin) / gam gwat (Cantonese)	Literally “golden tangerine.” From Cantonese. Entered English in the 19th century via trade in southern China.

Everyday English Words With Chinese Roots

These are not food words — they’re part of standard English and most people have no idea they came from Chinese.

English Word	Chinese	Pinyin	Story
Kowtow	叩头	kòutóu	Literally “knock head.” The formal act of bowing so deeply that the forehead touched the ground — performed before emperors and deities. Entered English in the early 19th century during the Qing dynasty’s dealings with Western powers. Today in English it means to act in an obsequious or submissive way.
Silk	丝	sī	The word “silk” is thought to derive from ancient Chinese 丝 (sī) via various intermediate languages along the Silk Road — possibly through Greek σηρικός (sērikós, meaning “of the Seres,” the Greek name for Chinese silk producers). This etymology is less certain than others on this list, but the cultural link is direct: silk was China’s defining export to the ancient world.
Chop chop	快快	kuài kuài	Meaning “hurry up, quickly.” From Cantonese 快快 (faai faai), adopted into Chinese Pidgin English and then into standard English by sailors and traders in the 19th century. Mandarin speakers will recognise 快 as the word for “fast” — as in 快递 (kuàidì, express delivery).
Wok	镬	wok (Cantonese) / guō (Mandarin)	From Cantonese 镬 (wok). In Mandarin, the same cooking vessel is called 锅 (guō). Another good reminder that Cantonese and Mandarin often sound completely different even for the same concept.

Sport and Movement

English Word	Chinese	Pinyin	Notes
Kung fu	功夫	gōngfu	Literally “skill acquired through effort/time.” In Chinese, 功夫 doesn’t exclusively refer to martial arts — it means mastery in any discipline. You can have 功夫 in cooking, calligraphy, or chess. The martial arts sense is a Western narrowing of the word.
Tai chi	太极拳	tài jí quán	The full name is 太极拳 — literally “Supreme Ultimate Fist.” The 拳 (quán, “fist/boxing”) is often dropped in English. 太极 (tài jí) is a fundamental concept in Chinese cosmology referring to the primordial state before duality — yin and yang emerging from one source.
Ping pong	乒乓球	pīngpāng qiú	One of the most satisfying cases of onomatopoeia in any language. 乒 (pīng) and 乓 (pāng) both imitate the sound of the ball. 球 (qiú) means “ball.” The official English name “table tennis” is the formal term; “ping pong” — from Mandarin — is what everyone actually says.

Culture and Philosophy

English Word	Chinese	Pinyin	Notes
Yin and yang	阴阳	yīn yáng	One of the most recognised Chinese concepts globally. 阴 (yīn) originally referred to the shaded side of a hill — associated with cold, darkness, passivity, the moon. 阳 (yáng) was the sunny side — warmth, light, activity, the sun. In Chinese philosophy, all things exist on a spectrum between these complementary forces, not as opposites but as interdependent aspects of a whole.
Feng shui	风水	fēng shuǐ	Literally “wind and water.” The practice of arranging spaces in harmony with natural forces. Entered Western awareness in the 19th century and has remained in common English use since, though often stripped of its deeper philosophical context.
Zen	禅	chán (Chinese) / zen (Japanese)	Strictly speaking, “zen” is the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese 禅 (chán). The school of Buddhism entered Japan from China, and the word entered English via Japanese. Worth including because the Chinese origin is 禅 — and chán Buddhism remains a living tradition in China today.

Clothing

English Word	Chinese	Pinyin	Notes
Qipao / Cheongsam	旗袍	qípáo	Qipao is the Mandarin name (literally “banner robe,” from the Manchu banners of the Qing dynasty). Cheongsam is the Cantonese pronunciation of 长衫 (cháng shān, “long shirt”), which is an alternate name. Both terms appear in English. The garment itself dates from the 1920s Shanghai fashion scene — not ancient China, as many assume.
Hanfu	汉服	hànfú	Literally “Han Chinese clothing.” The traditional dress of the Han ethnic majority, experiencing a major cultural revival in China today. Unlike qipao, hanfu refers to a broad category of historical styles rather than one garment.

Animals

English Word	Chinese	Pinyin	Notes
Shar Pei	沙皮	shāpí	Literally “sandy skin” — a reference to the breed’s coarse, sandpaper-like coat. The breed originated in southern China, probably Guangdong province.
Shih Tzu	狮子犬	shīzi quǎn	Literally “lion dog” — named for the lion imagery in Tibetan Buddhism. 狮子 (shīzi) = lion; 犬 (quǎn) = dog. An imperial breed, historically kept in the Forbidden City.

The Name “China” Itself

The name China is widely believed to derive from 秦 (Qín) — the dynasty (221–206 BCE) that first unified the Chinese state under Qin Shi Huang. The theory is that “Qín” traveled westward via Persian and Sanskrit, becoming “Cīna” in Sanskrit, then “Sina” in Latin, and eventually “China” in English.

This etymology is well-supported but technically unconfirmed — historians note that some references predate the Qin dynasty in regional records. What is certain: the name China did not come from within China itself. The Chinese have never called their country “China” — it is 中国 (Zhōngguó), the “Middle Kingdom.”

English Phrases Calqued From Chinese

A calque (or loan translation) is different from a loanword — instead of borrowing the sound, you translate the meaning word-for-word. These English phrases appear to be calques of Chinese expressions:

English Phrase	Chinese	Pinyin	Notes
Long time no see	好久不见	hǎojiǔ bùjiàn	The grammatical structure — “long time” + “no” + “see” — is not natural English but maps perfectly onto Chinese. Most linguists attribute this to Chinese Pidgin English from the 19th or early 20th century, though some also credit Native American English. The Chinese origin is the dominant theory.
No can do	不能做	bù néng zuò	Again, non-standard English grammar that mirrors Pidgin Chinese structure. Appeared in 19th-century texts and is generally attributed to Chinese Pidgin English, though the evidence is not as definitive as for “long time no see.”
Lose face	丢脸	diūliǎn	Literally “throw away face.” The concept of 面子 (miànzi, “face” meaning social standing) is so central to Chinese culture that the English phrase was borrowed wholesale. “To save face” (保全面子, bǎoquán miànzi) came into English the same way. Both are now fully standard English idioms.

A Learner’s Takeaway: Dialects Are Why This Gets Confusing

If you’re studying Mandarin and you look at the words above, you’ll notice something: many of them — ketchup, wonton, bok choy, chop chop, lychee, wok, dim sum — don’t sound like Mandarin at all. That’s because they came from Hokkien or Cantonese, not Mandarin.

This is actually useful to know. China has dozens of regional languages, and historically the Chinese communities who emigrated most to Southeast Asia, the US, and the UK were predominantly Cantonese and Hokkien speakers — not Mandarin speakers. That’s why so many Chinese loanwords in English sound nothing like standard Mandarin.

Here’s a quick side-by-side to make this concrete:

Concept	Mandarin	Cantonese / Hokkien	English word came from
Tea	chá	tê (Hokkien)	Hokkien
Wonton	húntún	wàhn tān (Cantonese)	Cantonese
Bok choy	báicài	baak choi (Cantonese)	Cantonese
Ketchup	—	kê-tsiap (Hokkien)	Hokkien
Wok	guō (锅)	wok (Cantonese, 镬)	Cantonese
Dim sum	diǎnxīn (点心)	dim sam (Cantonese)	Cantonese

Understanding this dialect layer is one of the things that separates a surface-level understanding of Chinese from a real one. And it’s one of the reasons that learning Mandarin — the national standard — opens up the logic behind all of these words in a way that just eating Chinese food never will.

Want to Keep Going?

If you found yourself wanting to know more about the Chinese behind these words — the characters, the tones, the stories — that curiosity is exactly what learning Mandarin feels like at its best. The language rewards that kind of digging.

👉 Book a free trial class with GoEast Mandarin →

Or start with vocabulary:

📥 Download your free HSK vocabulary list →

Related reading: How is Mandarin different from Cantonese?