My sister thinks nobody uses the word tisane

[conuly]

Please post here to tell her she’s wrong.

Edit: Jenn also says that I'm being unfairly prejudicial in my wording so, uh, you can also tell me I'm wrong I guess.

Comments

[dine]

I don't use it daily, but have - and I've a couple friends who frequently drink tisanes, and actually do use the word regularly

[frandroid]

I use it when I speak in French about herbal tea...

[profiterole_reads]

Same! I use it in French and didn't even know you could use it in English.

[hafnia]

I use it to refer to herbal tea and people think I'm nuts when I do!

[conuly]

Tea made with nuts would certainly be an interesting choice.

[lilysea]

I know the word tisane, but I never use it.

I'd say "herbal tea" instead.

[larryhammer]

This for me.

[james]

I use the word tisane!

[viggorlijah]

Poirot uses tisane therefore it is a true and proper word

[fred_mouse]

Is that where I got it from! I spent some time as a teenager wishing it was a word in general usage, and would recognise it but generally not use it.

[gwydion]

I not only use it, I drink it. I'm pretty sure I've written it in several things in the last month.

[kengr]

I don't use it, but I know what it means.Comes from reading various fantasy novels and the like.

[poliphilo]

I use it when I'm pretending to be Hercule Poirot.

[nicki]

I've used it in writing, but I've never said it aloud. I don't know who that counts towards :P.

[angelofthenorth]

We use it!

[hudebnik]

Neither of us drinks a lot of tea, much less the kind that comes from a tea-tree. I think we use the word "tisane" in the former, broader sense, for any hot-steeped infusion drink.

In recent months, shalmestere has been drinking a lot of "choffee", which is cocoa beans treated the way people treat coffee beans -- roasted, coarsely ground, and put through a French press -- and I suppose that's technically a tisane too.

[redbird]

You interest me strangely. Does that choffee taste like chocolate?

[gingicat]

I don't know anyone who uses it in casual conversation other than you, but it's a perfectly valid word.

[moon_custafer]

I'm familiar with it, but it's one of the many words I've never had an excuse to use in real life. (Been thinking lately that maybe I ought to makes excuses to do so, like finding reasons to get out the good china.)

The Kids In the Hall had a minor recurring character named Mr. Tisane, who was obsessed with tea.

[bearshorty]

I don't use it but I know what it means from studying French.

[redbird]

Yesterday on Discord a friend posted to say that her husband was making tea for himself a a tisane for her. If I'd been the writer, I'd probably have said "herb tea"--"tisane" is a word I recognize, and may use if someone else has already used it in the same conversation, but it's not my natural usage.

On the other hand, my natural usage has me occasionally stopping to change "bodega" to "convenience store," that being current Boston-area usage.

I should probably add that the Discord server where my friend used "tisane" yesterday includes a number of people who Canadians, some of whom live in Quebec, and at least one native speaker of French (who lives in New Jersey.

[cactuswatcher]

It's in the dictionary so someone must use it. But I never heard of it till you mentioned it. People mention Poirot using it, but sadly I prefer Miss Marple!

[cimorene]

The only person I know of is Poirot, and he's fictional and fifty to ~100 years ago. Except for when I'm complaining that herbal infusions should not be called "tea" for the sake of clarity, but I haven't encountered a lot of fellow feeling there. 😂

[conuly]

In fact, he debuted prior to 100 years ago, and of course was already an adult then.

[melannen]

I only use it when I'm around people I know for a fact have read a lot of fantasy novels and/or been to SCA events.

But I do use it around them.

[siliconshaman]

I have 8 bottles in my kitchen with tisane on the labels!

[steorra]

I'm pretty sure I learnt the word from one of Madeleine L'Engle's books but I never use it. I like the idea of calling drinks that aren't from the tea plant a name that isn't 'tea', but 'tisane' just isn't my dialect and I'd feel weird using it.

[troisoiseaux]

I'm one of today's lucky 10,000, I guess! (Although reading through other people's comments, it occurs to me I have seen the word before— I just never figured out what it meant.)

[thewayne]

Definitely wrong. Not in common usage, but it is used.

[rebeccmeister]

I am not here to answer the question. Instead, I am just here to chuckle.

[dark_phoenix54]

Well, if you work with herbs at all (I used to sell them) you use tisane all the time. Technically anything not Camellia sinensis put in hot water is a tisane, not a tea.

[conuly]

Surely tea is an herb and a drink with tea is also a tisane, though we don’t call it that.