ketchup

See also: Ketchup and kétchup

English

A bottle of tomato ketchup.

A bottle of mushroom ketchup.

Alternative forms

• catsup
• catchup (obsolete)
• katjap, katsup, kechap (archaic)
• ketsup (dated)

Etymology

Uncertain, but probably ultimately from Chinese via Malay kicap, from Min Nan 膎汁 (kê-chiap, “fish broth”), 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 (“soy sauce”). 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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛt͡ʃ.əp/, /ˈkɛt͡ʃ.ʌp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Homophone: catch-up (one pronunciation)

Noun

ketchup (countable and uncountable, plural ketchups)

1. (uncountable) A tomato-vinegar-based sauce, sometimes containing spices, onion or garlic, and (especially in the US) sweeteners.

   tomato ketchup

   This diner serves ketchup in red bottles, and mustard in yellow ones.

2. (countable, now rare) Such a sauce more generally (not necessarily based on tomatoes, but with mushrooms, fish, etc.).
   • 1883, Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, page lxxxiii:

     The bottles, however, were port bottles, but contained mushroom ketchup; […]

   • 2003, Inns and Bed and Breakfasts in Quebec 2003, ‎Ulysses Travel Guides, page 46:

     To accompany meat, we prepare fruit ketchups and rhubarb chutney.

Usage notes

The spelling ketchup became significantly preferred in the United States due to the popularity of the Heinz brand, which shortly after its introduction in 1876 switched from catsup to this spelling to distinguish itself from competitors. Other major brands, such as Hunt, subsequently followed, with Del Monte only switching to ketchup in 1988.

This condiment is more commonly and somewhat ambiguously called tomato sauce outside of the Americas. In South Africa, the word ketchup is not generally understood.

Derived terms

• ketchuppy

Descendants

1. REDIRECT Template:descendants-top

• → Cantonese: 茄汁 (ke4-2 zap1)
• → Catalan: quètxup
• → Czech: kečup
• → Danish: ketchup
• → Dutch: ketchup
• → Finnish: ketsuppi
• → French: ketchup
• → German: Ketchup, Catchup (obsolete), Ketschup (superseded)
  • → Lower Sorbian: ketšup
• → Irish: citseap
• → Japanese: ケチャップ (kechappu)
• → Korean: 케첩 (kecheop)
• → Marshallese: kōjjeb

• → Polish: keczup, ketchup
• → Russian: кетчуп (ketčup)
  • → Armenian: կետչուպ (ketčʻup)
• → Serbo-Croatian:
  • Cyrillic script: кечап
  • Latin script: kečap
• → Spanish: ketchup, kétchup
• → Swedish: ketchup
• → Thai: เค็ตชัป (két-chàp)
• → Tagalog: ketsap
• → Turkish: ketçap
• → Uzbek: ketchup
• → Yiddish: קעטשאָפּ (ketshop)

#REDIRECT Template:descendants-bottom

Translations

tomato-vinegar based sauce

• Albanian: keçap m
• Arabic: عَصِير الْبَنْدُورَة m (ʕaṣīr al-bandūra), كَتْشَب m (katšab)

  Egyptian Arabic: كاتشب m (katšab)

  Hijazi Arabic: كتشب m (katšab), كتشپ m (katšap)

• Armenian: կետչուպ (hy) (ketčʻup)
• Azerbaijani: ketçup, ketçap
• Belarusian: ке́тчуп m (kjétčup)
• Bengali: কেচাপ (kecap)
• Bulgarian: ке́тчуп (bg) m (kétčup)
• Catalan: quètxup m, quetxup m
• Chickasaw: akankishniha' okchi'
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 茄汁 (ke^4-2 zap¹)

  Mandarin: 番茄醬／番茄酱 (zh) (fānqiéjiàng), 番茄酱 (zh) (fānqiéjiàng), 茄汁 (zh) (qiézhī) (regional)

• Czech: kečup (cs) m
• Danish: ketchup (da) c
• Dutch: ketchup (nl) m, tomatenketchup (nl) m
• Esperanto: keĉupo (eo)
• Estonian: ketšup (et)
• Finnish: ketsuppi (fi)
• French: ketchup (fr) m
• Galician: catchup m, ketchup (gl) m
• Georgian: კეჩუპი (ḳečuṗi), კეტჩუპი (ḳeṭčuṗi)
• German: Ketchup (de) m or n
• Greek: κέτσαπ (el) n (kétsap)
• Hebrew: קֶטְשׁוֹפּ (he) m (ketshop)
• Hindi: केचप m (kecap)
• Hungarian: ketchup (hu), paradicsomszósz (hu)
• Icelandic: tómatsósa (is)
• Ido: kechupo (io)
• Indonesian: saus tomat
• Irish: citseap m
• Japanese: ケチャップ (ja) (kechappu)
• Kazakh: кетчуп (kk) (ketçup)
• Korean: 케첩 (ko) (kecheop)
• Kyrgyz: кетчуп (ky) (ketcup)
• Latvian: kečups m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lithuanian: kečupas m
• Macedonian: ке́чап m (kéčap), до́матен сос m (dómaten sos)
• Malay: kicap (ms), sos tomato (ms)
• Maltese: sos aħmar, ketċap
• Marathi: केचप n (kecap)
• Marshallese: kōjjeb
• Navajo: chʼil łichxíʼí akʼédzidí, chʼil łichxíʼí bitooʼ akʼédzidígíí, achʼííʼ yázhí bikʼétłohí łichxíʼígíí
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ketchup (no) m, ketsjup (no) m

  Nynorsk: ketchup m, ketsjup m

• Persian: کچاپ (kečâp)
• Polish: keczup (pl) m, ketchup (pl) m
• Portuguese: catchup (pt) m
• Russian: ке́тчуп (ru) m (kétčup), тома́тный со́ус m (tomátnyj sóus)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кѐчап m

  Roman: kèčap (sh) m

• Slovak: kečup m
• Slovene: kečap m
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: ketšup m

• Spanish: kétchup (es) m, ketchup (es) m
• Swedish: ketchup (sv) c
• Tagalog: ketsap
• Tajik: кетчуп (tg) (ketčup)
• Thai: เค็ตชัป (két-chàp)
• Tok Pisin: retsos
• Turkish: ketçap (tr)
• Ukrainian: ке́тчуп (uk) m (kétčup)
• Urdu: کیچپ m (kecap)
• Uyghur: شوخلا قىيامى (shoxla qiyami)
• Uzbek: ketchup (uz)
• Vietnamese: nước xốt cà chua
• Welsh: sos coch m
• Yiddish: קעטשאָפּ (ketshop)

Verb

ketchup (third-person singular simple present ketchups, present participle ketchupping, simple past and past participle ketchupped)

1. (transitive) To cover with ketchup.
   • 1867, John Maddison Morton, Aunt Charlotte's maid: a farce in one act:

     It strikes me she's "ketchupped" the lot! I won't touch a morsel!

   • 2009, David Silverman, Twinkle, page 4:

     Their fellow diners, like their ketchupped grub, were appropriately dashed and splattered with paint and plaster, reading their Suns and Daily Mirror.

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “ketchup”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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Danish

Etymology

From English ketchup. Ultimately from Chinese. See English etymology.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈkʰɛd̥ɕub̥]

Noun

ketchup c (singular definite ketchuppen, plural indefinite ketchupper)

1. (uncountable) ketchup (a tomate sauce with vinegar)
2. (countable) ketchup (a particular brand or type of ketchup)

Inflection

Declension of ketchup

common gender	Singular		Plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	ketchup	ketchuppen	ketchupper	ketchupperne
genitive	ketchups	ketchuppens	ketchuppers	ketchuppernes

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Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English ketchup. Ultimately from Chinese. See English etymology.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

ketchup m (plural ketchups, diminutive ketchupje n)

1. ketchup

Synonyms

• tomatenketchup

Derived terms

• curryketchup
• tomatenketchup

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from English ketchup. Ultimately from Chinese. See English etymology.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɛt.ʃœp/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /kɛt.ʃɔp/

• Audio (Quebec):

  (file)

Noun

ketchup m (plural ketchups)

1. ketchup

Further reading

• “ketchup”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛ.t͡ʂup/, (rare) /ˈkɛ.t͡ʂap/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt͡ʂup
• Syllabification: ke‧tchup

Noun

ketchup m inan

1. Alternative spelling of keczup

Declension

Declension of ketchup

	singular	plural
nominative	ketchup	ketchupy
genitive	ketchupu	ketchupów
dative	ketchupowi	ketchupom
accusative	ketchup	ketchupy
instrumental	ketchupem	ketchupami
locative	ketchupie	ketchupach
vocative	ketchupie	ketchupy

Further reading

• ketchup in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• ketchup in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Portuguese

Noun

ketchup m (plural ketchups)

1. Alternative spelling of catchup

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:ketchup.

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Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English ketchup.

Noun

ketchup n (uncountable)

1. ketchup

Declension

declension of ketchup (singular only)

	singular
n gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) ketchup	ketchupul
genitive/dative	(unui) ketchup	ketchupului
vocative	ketchupule

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Serbo-Croatian

Noun

ketchup m (Cyrillic spelling кетцхуп)

1. Alternative form of kečap

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Spanish

Alternative forms

• kétchup

Etymology

Borrowed from English ketchup. Ultimately from Chinese. See English etymology.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /keˈt͡ʃup/ [keˈt͡ʃup]

Noun

ketchup m (plural ketchups)

1. ketchup

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Swedish

Etymology

From English ketchup.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛtːɕɵp/

Noun

ketchup c

1. ketchup

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West Frisian

Etymology

From English ketchup.

Noun

ketchup c (no plural)

1. ketchup