Significance of the kanji 茶 in the set phrase 滅茶滅茶{めちゃめちゃ} / 目茶目茶{めちゃめちゃ}


While having fun looking up random words in my dictionary software, I found
out that the phrase "めちゃめちゃ", which is often used in colloquial sentences like
"めちゃめちゃかわいい" has two kanji variants:

> 滅茶滅茶  
>  目茶目茶

For the first variant, 滅茶滅茶, I can imagine the significance of 滅, which
implies "destruction", but why with "tea"? The second variant is even absurd
(or can I use "mecha-mecha" as a pun here :P), because it's from "eye" and
"tea".

Does the kanji character "茶" has any significance in the phrase, or are they
just ateji?




That's just ateji「当て字」, but they used like that because

  * 滅茶滅茶 related with 滅茶苦茶/無茶苦茶 (muchakucha) and base word is 無茶, 
  * There is some saying that 無茶 supposed to mean お客さんにお茶を出さない。 (No o-cha?)  
(Don't provide tea to customer, which is unreasonable just like 無茶苦茶. But
meaning from 当て字 are not suppose to be used, so above is wrong approach.

  * There is also another saying that 無茶 comes from Buddhist word 無作 (musa/musaku), which has meaning むさぼる (greedy, covet) and 苦茶 is just to emphasize the former.

ref: <http://gogen-allguide.com/mu/muchakucha.html>




That's just ateji「当て字」, but they used like that because

  * 滅茶滅茶 related with 滅茶苦茶/無茶苦茶 (muchakucha) and base word is 無茶, 
  * There is some saying that 無茶 supposed to mean お客さんにお茶を出さない。 (No o-cha?)  
(Don't provide tea to customer, which is unreasonable just like 無茶苦茶. But
meaning from 当て字 are not suppose to be used, so above is wrong approach.

  * There is also another saying that 無茶 comes from Buddhist word 無作 (musa/musaku), which has meaning むさぼる (greedy, covet) and 苦茶 is just to emphasize the former.

ref: <http://gogen-allguide.com/mu/muchakucha.html>

