What "Spill the Tea" REALLY Means In Vernacular English And When Was That Vernacular Phrase First Used?

The Real Daytime, Oct 16, 2014

During her visit to “The Real” couch, singer and drummer Sheila E. dishes on the time she met and worked with countless legends like Prince, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Marvin Gaye.
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From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_E.
"Sheila Cecilia Escovedo (born December 12, 1957) better known under the stage name Sheila E., is an American percussionist, singer, author, and actress. She began her career in the mid-1970s as a percussionist and singer for The George Duke Band. After leaving the group in 1983, Sheila began a successful solo career, starting with her critically acclaimed debut album, which included the career-defining song, "The Glamorous Life". She became a mainstream solo star in 1985 following the success of the singles, "The Belle of St. Mark", "Sister Fate", and "A Love Bizarre" with the last becoming one of her signature songs. She is commonly referred to as The Queen of Percussion.[3][4]"

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post presents information and examples of the vernacular meaning of the saying "spill the tea".

The content of this post is presented for linguistic, socio-cultural, and political purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners,

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/03/what-reading-someone-throwing-shade-no.html# for a related pancocojams post entitled "What "Reading Someone", "Throwing Shade", & "No Tea No Shade" Mean"

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WHAT "SPILL THE TEA" MEANS IN VERNACULAR ENGLISH
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

Excerpt #1
From https://slangit.com/meaning/spill_the_tea
"What does spill the tea mean?

Share the gossip

Spill the tea is a phrase used to tell a person to share any gossip that she knows. It's similar to the older "spill your guts" or "spill the beans" phrases.

The phrase comes from "Spill the T," where the "T" stands for "truth," which was introduced by drag queen Lady Chablis in the 1994 book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." However, the "spill the tea" phrase didn't become popular in mainstream culture until 2018*.

The phrase is a little more clever than "spill the T" because tea is something that you can actually spill but also still sounds the same as if you were just saying the letter "T." The phrase is typically used by females who love to gossip and want to know every dirty detail of other people's lives. You may also see variations of the phrase, such as "weak tea" or "give us the tea."

Example: "Stop holding out on us, spill the tea!"
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There are a number of online examples-including some cited in this pancocojams post-that refute the statement that the phrase "spill the tea didn't become popular in mainstream culture until 2018." 

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Excerpt #2
From https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/428090/where-does-the-expression-spill-the-tea-come-from Where does the expression spill the tea come from
"The expression appears to have originated in American black drag culture:

It appears that T, also spelled tea, had a double-edged meaning in black drag culture. It could refer to a hidden truth, as Chablis uses it, and it could also refer to someone else's hidden truth—that is, gossip:

Straight life must be so boring. Because everyone conforms. These gay kids carry on. ... They give you dance and great tea [gossip]. — "Nate" quoted in One of the Children: An Ethnography of Identity and Gay Black Men, William G. Hawkeswood, 1991

As drag culture—and particularly black drag culture—gained prominence, so too did this dual meaning use of tea. It's spread far beyond black drag culture at this point. The phrase "spill the tea," used as an encouragement to gossip, has been used in everything from Harlequin romance novels to "RuPaul's Drag Race"; "no tea, no shade" has been featured in explainers on black gay slang; comedian Larry Wilmore used "weak tea" regularly on his 2015-16 Comedy Central show in response to people who weren't telling the absolute truth.

The expression appears to have originated in American black drag culture:

It appears that T, also spelled tea, had a double-edged meaning in black drag culture. It could refer to a hidden truth, as Chablis uses it, and it could also refer to someone else's hidden truth—that is, gossip:

• Straight life must be so boring. Because everyone conforms. These gay kids carry on. ... They give you dance and great tea [gossip]. — "Nate" quoted in One of the Children: An Ethnography of Identity and Gay Black Men, William G. Hawkeswood, 1991

As drag culture—and particularly black drag culture—gained prominence, so too did this dual meaning use of tea. It's spread far beyond black drag culture at this point. The phrase "spill the tea," used as an encouragement to gossip, has been used in everything from Harlequin romance novels to "RuPaul's Drag Race"; "no tea, no shade" has been featured in explainers on black gay slang; comedian Larry Wilmore used "weak tea" regularly on his 2015-16 Comedy Central show in response to people who weren't telling the absolute truth.

(Merriam-Webster)

The expression is American:
Spilling tea (American Slang)

On the day that I was working on this video, I searched ‘spilling tea’ online and found that it was in the headlines. “Rob Kardashian’s Instagram Is Disabled, But His Tea Spilling Continues On Twitter”. Spilling tea means to gossip about someone. So here, Kardashian was gossiping about his ex-fiance, which included posting naked pictures of her. Not good.

 user121863, edited Jan 25 '18 at 22:28, answered Jan 25 '18 at 20:17

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Excerpt #3
From https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spill%20the%20tea
"Spill the tea

To share gossip. A term started within the gay community of San Antonio, Texas and spread originally throughout the South Central region of the United States. Now used throughout the gay communities in United States and possibly other countries. It comes from the idea of having old Southern tea parties in the South to gossip behind people's back.

R: "Okay girls, it is time to spill the tea."

C: "What tea do you have?"

R: "A certain ex boyfriend of the grand Queen now says he is straight"
by Beava Diva April 09, 2012

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A CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL EXAMPLE OF "SPILL THE TEA"
From https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CallHisBluff
[#CallHisBluff was rated as #10 in top trending twitter hashtags at Nov. 10, 2010 around 3:30 PM ET] 

 Lisa

@Lisa_is_Tired

5h

One of my top most favorite actors, spills the tea...#callHisBluff

Quote Tweet

Thread Reader App

@threadreaderapp

 · 7h

Replying to @Moonfishlake

Halo! please find the unroll here: @EdwardNorton: I’m no political pundit but I grew up w a dad who was a federal prosecutor & he taught me a lot & I’ve… https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1329728889296355328.html Share this if you think it's interesting. [emoji of a Robot face]
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Italics were added to highlight this phrase.

This hashtag refers to actor Edward Norton's tweeter thread which recommended that people call trump's bluff since he refuses to concede the election.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/call-someone-s-bluff
"call someone's bluff

 Expose someone's deception, invite a showdown, as in I don't believe they have enough capital; I'm going to call their bluff. This term comes from poker, where bluffing (pretending) that one has better cards than one's opponents is an intrinsic part of the game, and calling someone's bluff means forcing them to show their cards. By the late 1800s it was being applied to other enterprises. Also see show one's hand."

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