The Rice University Neologisms Database

Chinese drink with little chewy tapioca balls; the drink part can be tea, fruit juices, or coffee; beverage originating from China and brought over here in the mid-90’s by Chinese immigrants wanting to start a new business People cannot correctly pronounce the Chinese words for the drink so when they heard the Chinese words, they derived the word boba. Chinese people do not use the word boba in Asian countries because in Taiwanese, it means “big breasts,” which is how they got the name for the drink to describe the little tapioca balls. The drink just recently in the past few years became popular in America and mostly everyone knows what it is. Boba used to only be used in the Asian community and has now spread to a word used by all ethnicities.