tea money
n.— «While Vietnam operates in a very centralized, federalist system, with little variance in local laws, a much greater variance exists in the application and enforcement of national laws. “Tea money,” common parlance for bribes, is a regular cost of doing business and manifests itself in every facet of life, from dealing with traffic cops to dealing with higher-ranking government officials.» —“Day 3 in Saigon” by Tommy Perkins in Vietnam Hot Freaks and Other Roadside Attractions (Austin, Texas) Mar. 9, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do you pronounce rooibos? The name of this tea comes from the Afrikaans words rooi bos, meaning “red bush.” Rooibos is pronounced ROY-boss, but it’s also called bush tea, red tea, or redbush tea. This is part of a complete episode.
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