Etymology Dictionary

CADDY,  a small box for holding tea.  (Malay.)   'The key of the caddy;' Letter from Cowper to Lady Hesketh, Jan. 19, 1793.   The sense has somewhat changed, and the spelling also.   It properly means 'a packet of tea of a certain weight,' and the better spelling is catty.   'An original package of tea, less than a half-chest, is called in the trade a "box," "caddy," or "catty."   This latter is a Malay word; "kati, a catty or weight, equal to 1⅓ lb. avoirdupois."   In many dictionaries, catty is described as the Chinese pound;' R. W. W., in Notes and Queries, 3 S. x. 323.   At the same reference I myself gave the following information.   'The following curious passage in a lately-published work is worth notice.   "The standard currency of Borneo is brass guns.   This is not a figure of speech, nor do I mean small pistols, or blunderbusses, but real cannon, five to ten feet long, and heavy in proportion.   The metal is estimated at so much a picul, and articles are bought and sold, and change given, by means of this awkward coinage.   The picul contains 100 catties, each of which weighs about 1⅓ English pounds.   There is one advantage about this currency; it is not easily stolen."—F. Boyle, Adventures among the Dyaks, p. 100.   To the word catties the author subjoins a footnote as follows:  "Tea purchased in small quantities is frequently enclosed in boxes containing one catty.  I offer a diffident suggestion that this may possibly be the derivation of our familiar tea-caddy."   I may add that the use of this weight is not confined to Borneo; it is used also in China, and is (as I am informed) the only weight in use in Japan.'—Malay katí, a catty, or weight of which one hundred make a píkul of 133⅓ pounds avoirdupois, and therefore equal to 21⅓ oz. or 1⅓ pound; it contains 16 táil; Marsden's Malay Dict. p. 253.