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I have the following in a Zelda guide book I am translating. It is talking
about being faced with a problem and trying various ways to solve it (you know
the Zelda games). I am interested in "むちゃな". There is no kanji but I believe
it is 無茶な. This is a videogame guide book and the target audience is teenagers
I believe, from looking at what kanji is used and not used.

> そう思える場合は、大抵そのとおりなのだ。 あまりむちゃなアクションを要求されることはない。

This looks to me like "bad tea" (which could mean "absurd" in a way). Is this
the correct kanji, and is it common to use this kanji or is hiragana
preferred?

Does anybody know the origins of this? Does "bad tea" really mean "absurd"?

if the next line helps:

> これまでに覚えたアクションと、ゲットしたアイテムを使えば、ほとんどの謎は苦労せずに解けるはずなのだ。
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2014-03-17T08:53:03.403
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2014-03-17T20:36:37.320
2014-03-17T20:36:37.320
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question
kanji ateji
無茶 - "bad tea" = absurd; unreasonable
First, 無茶 wouldn't be interpreted as _bad_ tea. 無 means "no" as in
"nothingness," not bad. As such, one might be led to believe that this is
something about not having any tea to give to guests or something, and that
situation being where the term came from. This is not true.

The kanji 無茶 are _ateji_. This means that the kanji were chosen arbitrarily
based on the pronunciation of the word. [This site](http://gogen-
allguide.com/mu/muchakucha.html) suggests that the word itself is derived from
an old Buddhist term, 無作{むさ}, though that appears to be ultimately
speculative. Regardless, though, the word is not connected to tea.
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2014-03-17T09:26:27.783
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2014-03-17T09:26:27.783
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answer