The Rice University Neologisms Database

A single tapioca pearl, or piece of ‘boba.’ This term has a humorous tone and seems to be the result of analogy to words that follow the Latin declension for nouns that have singulars that end in -um and plurals that end in -a, like ‘data’ and ‘datum.’ The singular and plural for ‘boba’ are generally the same, possibly because the term is borrowed from Mandarin Chinese and has retained its lack of plural affixes or possibly because there are few English singular nouns that end in ‘a’ to set a precedent for a plural. This ambiguity about the singular and plural of boba, which may have motivated the formation of this facetious singular, may also relate to the dual meanings of ‘boba’: the tapioca pearls themselves or the tea beverage that contains them.