Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A condiment consisting of a thick, smooth-textured, spicy sauce usually made from tomatoes.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See catchup.
Wiktionary
- n. uncountable A tomato-vinegar based sauce.
- n. countable Such a sauce more generally (not necessarily based on tomatoes), or a specific brand or kind of such sauce – see usage notes below.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A pureed table sauce made predominantly from tomatoes, flavored with onions, sugar, salt and spices; called also
tomato ketchup . The term is also applied to pureed sauces containing mushrooms, walnuts, etc., being called in such casesmushroom ketchup ,walnut ketchup , etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. thick spicy sauce made from tomatoes
Etymologies
- 1711, following earlier catchup (1690), of disputed origin. Originally referred to a sauce from South/Southeast/East Asia – 1690: East Indies (region generally); 1711: Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and China. (Wiktionary)
- Probably Malay kicap, fish sauce, possibly from Chinese (Cantonese) kē-chap, equivalent to Chinese (Mandarin) qié, eggplant + Chinese (Mandarin) zhī, sap, gravy. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“And to make its trek into the 21st century complete, Heinz has launched a Facebook fan page, where ketchup enthusiasts If there are any! can share stories, videos, photos about…..ketchup.”
Angelina Jolie Heinz Spokesmodel: Angelina Jolie Heinz Ad Campaign
“Did you know the American front porch is an architectural tradition from Africa ... that an early version of pizza was baked on ancient warriors 'shields ... and that the word "ketchup" comes from the Chinese "ki-tsiap" meaning "fish sauce"?”
“Smokey and Blaise look great and Smokey knows how important ketchup is to keeping ones sanity (just ask Garrison Keillor).”
“For the first time in 40 years, Heinz ketchup is changing its famous recipe — by lowering the salt content in an effort to appeal to more health-conscious consumers, the company said yesterday.”
“� Ms. OBAMA: Many of these kids may never learn that ketchup comes from a tomato or that French fries actually come from a potato, because they're very disconnected from the food that they eat.”
“To serve, mix in ketchup or hot sauce of your choice.”
“Restaurants give ketchup away, so "cost is king," says Amy Coltrin , senior director of product development for Golden State Foods Corp., a Heinz competitor that supplies private-label ketchup to most McDonald's in the U.S.”
“I've had store clerks make comments, from why organic ketchup is a joke to "you're one of those" because I use recyclable bags.”
“This means that a certain ketchup heriess would have to give up $27.5 million of her $550 million fortune each year.”
The Minimum Wage, Con't, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“I covered it in ketchup, relish, and honey mustard.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ketchup’.
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Loanwords
Since English is littered with loanwords, everything could conceivably end up here. But there is a distinct feeling associated with these.. maybe they're young additions to the English language; I ...
iceberg, fjord, firth, abbey, abyss, anorak, apartheid, assassin, avalanche, avocado, balaclava, banana and 104 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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Condiments
ketchup, catsup, mustard, relish, mayo, mayonnaise, condiment, horseradish, wasabi, mango pickle, mint chutney, Sabrett's Prepare... and 38 more...
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Ketchup
Also, catsup.
ketchup, catsup, ketchup couverture, spontaneous ketch..., tomato ketchup, catchup, ketchup packet, banana ketchup, now a vegetable, Heinz, marrying ketchup, tomato sauce and 9 more...
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Non-Newtonian Fluids
oobleck, ketchup, catsup, custard, toothpaste, shampoo, paint, flubber, Silly Putty, quicksand, Coca-Cola, epoxy and 12 more...
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spoon
being items relating to food, cooking and the kitchen.
spoon, fork, beef, slice, dozen, eggs, simmer, broil, salad, soup, stock, lard and 287 more...
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food
food, chef, spice, salt, sugar, pumpkin, apples, fruit, vegetable, savory, soup, sauce and 280 more...
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words my 19-month-old daughter says
We'll skip people's names.
basketball, light, railroad, mommy, daddy, up, hand, gate, walk, kitty, doggie, cat and 145 more...
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Words That Sound Dirty but Really Aren't
annals, assassinate, bisect, bubbly, caucus, caulk, colloquialism, concoct, condominium, congeal, congenital, convex and 131 more...
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English loanwords in Italian, with PR...
See discussion on bruschetta. Unlike chelster, I believe the "correct" pronunciation remains the English one.
hamburger, cheeseburger, ketchup, pancake, toast, mountain bike, tour operator, water, computer, hot dog, hiking
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Pretty quirky
whimsy, sparkle, pebble, bubbles, starlight, moonbeam, glade, glow, acorn, demure, oak, oat and 81 more...
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Bill Bryson's Disagreeable Words
These are words that Mr. Bryson thinks sound especially bad, or are wasted on what they are supposed to describe.
muesli, haggis, pineapple, grapefruit, ketchup, cashew, pretzel, semolina, fajita, marzipan, anorak, spatula and 6 more...
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Mass Nouns
From wikipedia: "In English, mass nouns are characterized by the fact that they cannot be directly modified by a numeral without specifying a unit of measurement, and that they cannot combine with ...
advice, blood, cattle, equipment, furniture, grass, information, knowledge, mathematics, meat, money, music and 31 more...
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My Pantry
Inspired by Groceries, the list.
soup, 5lb bag of sugar, syrup, horseradish, ketchup, lemonade mix, iced tea mix, chocolate milk mix, bag-o-mixed nuts ..., 3 jars of mustards, plum sauce, water chestnuts and 57 more...
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Favourite Etymologies
flak, avocado, cravat, cobalt, kickshaw, brook, smorgasbord, feisty, blatherskite, buckram, execution, oaf and 80 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ketchup.
ruzuzu See ketchup couverture. Jan 27, 2010
chained_bear Rolig, I think catsup is a very common spelling; I'm not sure either is really preferred except by individuals. My understanding (which comes almost exclusively from Kurlansky's book, below, p. 189-191 acc. to Amazon) is that the word was originally something like "ke-tsiap" (going off vague memory here), and that pronunciation probably was more like catsup than ketchup.
The "original" ke-tsiap (or however it was spelled, this being well before standardization) was a salt-preserved condiment sauce made from fermented inedible fish parts (e.g. heads, guts) and sounded to me a lot more similar to Worcestershire sauce than to what we know today as ketchup. But anyway... what we call catsup or ketchup can be made from a wide variety of foodstuffs--I've seen banana ketchup quite frequently, actually--but the most common seems to be the tomato.
I don't know anyone who pronounces it cat-sup, though. Oct 6, 2008
rolig As a child I learned the spelling "catsup" for this condiment, I think from the writing on our catsup bottle. Of course, I felt a certain awe for this word that could be spelled one way and pronounced entirely differently. Oct 6, 2008
reesetee THANK you. :-) Oct 4, 2008
chained_bear *makes restitution*
*beats chest in penance* Oct 3, 2008
reesetee C_b, you carelessly left "little tomatoey globules" unbracketed. Shame. Oct 3, 2008
chained_bear p.s. this word has a pretty awesome etymology. And I highly recommend the couple of chapters in Mark Kurlansky's Salt for more history than you ever dreamed ketchup had in its little tomatoey globules. Oct 3, 2008
chained_bear What? WeirdNet says it's a sauce... Oct 3, 2008
reesetee *snort* Oct 3, 2008
chained_bear A type of fruit-butter, much like applesauce. According to discussion on criss-cross applesauce. Oct 3, 2008