‘Ketchup’ or ‘Catsup’?

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the current ketchup shortage, and that reminded me that people sometimes wonder about the two spellings of the word “ketchup.”

'Ketchup' is the more common spelling

Although both spellings are correct, “ketchup” is far and away the most common spelling. Some dictionaries do list “catsup” as a variant, but the Oxford English Dictionary says the variant spelling is largely American and arose a bit later than “ketchup,” which came first. 

The AP Stylebook specifically recommends “ketchup,” and a search of word usage in Google Books, shows the “ketchup” spelling vastly outpacing “catsup” in both American and British English. Further, I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that Heinz, the main provider of ketchup in both countries, also spells it “ketchup.” The spelling on all those bottles and packets seeps into our minds like ketchup into a dry bun.

The history of the sauce in general surprised me though! It wasn’t always a tomato sauce.

Ketchup was originally a fish sauce

The original ketchup was probably a Chinese fish sauce called “kê-chiap” that British travelers enjoyed while traveling in the East in the 1600s. 

After returning home, they tried to imitate the sauce and also gave it an English version of the name that came as close as they could approximate, and then, eventually, in the 1700s and 1800s, “ketchup” came to be a word for many different kinds of sauces. 

Later, ketchup was the name for multiple sauces

People made walnut ketchup, oyster ketchup, and mushroom ketchup, which you can actually still buy today from a British company called Geo Watkins that was established in 1830, during this time of ketchup sauce variety. The company says its ketchup was “the secret of success for many Victorian cooks when making steak and kidney pies, puddings, roast meats, sauces, and soups.” And if you look hard enough on the internet, you can also find banana ketchup and beet ketchup.

Like 'ketchup,' 'mango' used to have a wider meaning too

The story actually reminds me of mangoes, which I talked about back in 2019, because...

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