ketchup

Meanings

Noun

• A tomato-vinegar-based sauce, sometimes containing spices, onion or garlic, and (especially in the US) sweeteners.
• Such a sauce more generally (not necessarily based on tomatoes).

Verb

• To cover with ketchup.

Origin

• Uncertain, but probably ultimately from Chinese via Malay kicap, from Min Nan , though precise path is unclear – there are related words in various Chinese dialects, and it may have entered English directly from Chinese. Cognate to Indonesian kecap, ketjap. Various other theories exist – see Ketchup: Etymology for extended discussion.
• First appeared in English in the late 17th century in reference to a Southeast Asian sauce encountered by British traders and sailors. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that it was commonly used in the 18th century to refer to a variety of similar sauces with varying ingredients—"anchovies, mushrooms, walnuts, and oysters being particularly popular"—but by the late 19th century the current tomato ketchup became the most popular form.
• catsup (earlier catchup) is an alternative Anglicization, still in use in the U.S.