means A vessel, typically with a handle, spout, and lid, used for brewing and pouring tea.

from A transparent compound of "tea" plus "pot." The "tea" half is the interesting one: it sailed into English in the 1600s alongside the drink itself, borrowed from a Min Chinese form (te or t'e) spoken in the coastal Fujian region — the trading dialect of the Dutch merchants who shipped the leaves to Europe. Inland China gave Russia and others the cha branch instead (as in chai), so the world's words for tea split neatly along whether the leaves came by sea or by land. "Pot" is solid old Germanic kitchenware, related to forms across the northern languages. Joined together, they name the small ceramic tyrant on your counter.