means A small spoon used for stirring drinks and measuring out little amounts, equal to about 5 milliliters in cooking.

from A plain compound of "tea" and "spoon," coined in the 17th century when tea-drinking arrived in Europe and called for a dainty utensil to stir the costly leaves. "Spoon" itself comes from Old English "spon," which originally meant a chip or sliver of wood — the earliest spoons being literally shaved splinters used to scoop. "Tea" traces back through Dutch "thee" to the Min Chinese "te," the pronunciation Dutch traders picked up from coastal Fujian. So the word quietly carries a wood-chip and a Chinese leaf in its two short syllables.