ketchup

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

Uncertain, but probably ultimately from Hokkien 膎汁 (kê-chiap, “fish sauce”) via Malay kicap, though the precise path is unclear – there are related words in various Chinese languages, and it may have entered English directly from Hokkien 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.^[1]

Catsup (earlier catchup) is an alternative Anglicization, still in use in the U.S.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛt͡ʃ.əp/, /ˈkɛt͡ʃ.ʌp/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /ˈkɛt͡ʃ.ʊp/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

• Homophone: catch-up (one pronunciation)

ketchup (countable and uncountable, plural ketchups)

1. (uncountable, chiefly US, Canada, UK) Ellipsis of tomato ketchup (“a tomato-vinegar-based sauce, sometimes containing spices, onion or garlic, and (especially in the US) sweeteners”).

   Synonym: tomato catsup

   Hypernyms: tomato sauce, red ketchup, red catsup

   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.). This is the older meaning.

   Hyponyms: tomato ketchup, tomato catsup, fruit ketchup, fruit catsup, corn ketchup, corn catsup, green ketchup, green catsup, yellow ketchup, yellow catsup

   • 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.

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.^[2]

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

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!

   • 1973, Horizon, page 15:

     "Well," said Chuck, ketchupping his hamburger, "I'd rather do without King Lear than put up with the human agony it sprang out of. I'd rather not have the Eroica than have the big bloody conqueror it tries to immortalize."

   • 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.

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “ketchup”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

From English ketchup, from Malay kicap, from Hokkien 膎汁 (kê-chiap).

• IPA^(key): [ˈkʰɛd̥ɕub̥]

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)

Borrowed from English ketchup, from Malay kicap, from Hokkien 膎汁 (kê-chiap). Doublet of ketjap.

• Audio:

  (file)

ketchup m (plural ketchups, diminutive ketchupje n)

1. ketchup

   Synonym: tomatenketchup

Borrowed from English ketchup, from Malay kicap, from Hokkien 膎汁 (kê-chiap).

• (France) IPA^(key): /kɛt.ʃœp/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• (France, Quebec) IPA^(key): /kɛt.ʃɔp/

• Audio (Quebec):

  (file)

ketchup m (plural ketchups)

1. ketchup

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

• kecsöp
• kecsap, kecsup (informal)

Unadapted borrowing from English ketchup.

• IPA^(key): [ˈkɛt͡ʃøp], [ˈkɛt͡ʃɒp]
• Hyphenation: ke‧tchup
• Rhymes: -øp, -ɒp

ketchup (plural ketchupök or ketchupok)

1. ketchup (tomato-vinegar-based sauce)

or

• ketchup in Ferenc Pusztai, editor, Magyar értelmező kéziszótár [A Concise Explanatory Dictionary of Hungarian] (ÉKsz.²), 2nd, expanded and revised edition, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2003 (online searchable version under development).

Borrowed from English ketchup.

ketchup m (invariable)

1. ketchup

Unadapted borrowing from English ketchup, from Malay kicap, from Hokkien 膎汁 (kê-chiap, “fish sauce”).

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

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛt͡ʂup, -ɛt͡ʂap
• Syllabification: ke‧tchup

ketchup m inan

1. alternative spelling of keczup

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

• catchup

Unadapted borrowing from English ketchup.

ketchup m (plural ketchups)

1. (uncountable) ketchup (tomato-vinegar based sauce)
   • 2012, Daniel Galera, Barba ensopada de sangue, Editora Companhia das Letras, →ISBN, page 205:

     Ela passava as tardes livres da infância vendo a Sessão da Tarde na televisão e comendo nuggets com ketchup.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “ketchup”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Unadapted borrowing from English ketchup.

ketchup n (uncountable)

1. ketchup

ketchup m inan (Cyrillic spelling кетцхуп)

1. alternative spelling of kečap

• cátsup
• cátchup
• kétchup
• quéchap (obsolete, Philippines)

Unadapted borrowing from English ketchup, from Malay kicap, from Hokkien 膎汁 (kê-chiap).

• IPA^(key): /ˈket͡ʃup/ [ˈke.t͡ʃup]
• Rhymes: -etʃup

ketchup m (plural ketchups)

1. ketchup

From English ketchup.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛtːɕɵp/

ketchup c

1. ketchup

   senap och ketchup

   ketchup and mustard ["senap och ketchup" feels more idiomatic than "mustard and ketchup" does in English, for some reason]

Popular and uncontroversial pasta condiment in Sweden.

• ketchupflaska (“bottle of ketchup”)
• tomatketchup (“tomato ketchup”)

• makaroner
• makaronilåda
• köttfärssås
• senap (“mustard”)
• spaghetti
• tomat

• ketchup in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• ketchup in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

From English ketchup.

ketchup c (no plural)

1. ketchup