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

From: "John Cowan"

> It's from Minnan Chinese ke tsiap 'fish sauce', and was originally highly
similar
> to that Greek fermented fish sauce, the name of which I forget.  Tomatoes
of course
> are a New World vegetable and didn't get into the act until later.
Well "tsiap" makes sense (again, Mandarin: zhi1), but I'm racking my brains
trying to figure out what "ke" is. The first word that popped into my head
was "chicken", but that doesn't work obviously. The only "fish" possiblities
are "salmon" and "Mandarin fish", but neither have entries in the dictionary
for "ketsiap". The Minnan word for fish is "hi5"; there I find an entry for
"hi5lo2" (defined as "a condiment made from the pickled salt water taken
from salty fish; mmm mmm), which sounds a bit like what you're describing.
Any idea what "ke" really means? I'm stumped.

Kou