Re: What's the etymology of ketchup/catsup?

DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
>
> From: "Roger Mills"
>
> > I've always understood (malaycentrism?)
> > that the word came to Engl. via Malay, kechap, so probably thanks to the
> > Brits in Malaya... but on due consideration it could just as easily have
> > come from the trading posts in Canton or Hong Kong too.  In Ml./Indonesian
> > it refers to their variety of (sweetened) soy sauce.
>
> My Webster's Collegiate cites the Malay "kechap". Meanwhile, in Cantonese
> there's "gip1jap1", which in both Guangdong and Hong Kong refers to what,
> for all intents and purposes, is Worcestershire sauce (same as the above
I have in fact seen Worcestershire sauce described as an anchovy catsup,
the almost sole survivor of a great number of catsups based on fruits
to nuts in the 18th century world of European and American Cuisine.

--
Brad Coon
bcoon@imt.net

Somedays when you wake up, its just not worth chewing through
the leather straps.