Survey: Do You Say Catsup or Ketchup?

When you're talking about the tomato-based condiment that you dip fries on or spread on a hamburger or a meatloaf, what do you call it?

Are ketchup and catsup the same thing, or is there a difference?

Ketchup - the word "ketchup" originated around the year 1711 to describe a fish sauce called "kecap" from either China or Malaysia. Scholars can't seem to agree on which, so it is open for debate. Sometimes it was written as "catchup." The tomato-based sauce that we now call "ketchup" arrived in the early 1800's in recipes, but there was also a mushroom ketchup at this time. (Mushroom ketchup is still sold in Britain today, and banana ketchup is sold in the Philippines.) When the Heinz company started selling bottled "tomato ketchup" in 1876, their ketchup became the most popular tomato-based ketchup sold in the US, so the "tomato" was dropped and the word "ketchup" became synonymous with the thick tomato condiment we know and love today, similar to the way that most people say "hand me a kleenex" instead of "hand me a facial tissue," no matter what brand of tissue it is.

Catsup - the word "catsup" first showed up in Poems Composed at Market Hill by Jonathan Swift in 1730 when he wrote about "Botargo, catsup, and caviare." For a while the word "catsup" was more commonly used in North America, and then "ketchup" took over due to large-scale manufacturers like Heinz and Hunt's calling their product "ketchup."

Short answer: ketchup and catsup are the same thing; a tomato-based condiment with vinegar and spices.

Comments (23)

The spelling "catsup" can easily be reach as "ketchup" in our wonderful wacky unpredictable english language. Can you spell out how if would be phonetically different? " Cat-soup" or "Cats up" or something else???

I say ketchup because I'm not from 1859.

err . . ."how IT would be phonetically different"

I occasionally say "catsup" to be funny. ... lol. It's not even in the spell checker!

@Griege -- Ha! I was thinking exactly the same thing!

wow, ketchup is dominating.

"Catsup" is closer to correct since that (ugh!) stuff isn't really made from tomatoes but rather from boiled cats.

However, I do say catsup when I hop on my velocipede to go to the local food stand and ask for catsup on my Hamburg Style sandwich.

I realize, I'm just being a jerk now.

Speaking of ketchup... http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/09/06/040906fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all

I'm in Pittsburgh, home of Heinz. It's ketchup ;)

I never understood why some called it Catsup. I always thought it was just a branding thing since most generic tomato "ketchup" i've seen says "catsup" on the label. Either way, Catsup just looks/seems odd.

Greige is cracking me up today!

Catsup a tree - someone get a ladder

Wait, do some people really _say_ "cat-sup"? I have never heard that! I just thought it was an alternate spelling of the word pronounced "ketch-up."

I say we all switch back to the OG kecap. (Which tastes nothing like ketchup...)

Oh Greige, you're hilarious! More!

I am wondering if there's any regionalism here. But I've only known one person in my entire life who said "cat-sup"

In Cantonese, tomato is "fah-keh" and juice or sauce is "jup". Tomato is shortened to "keh" which makes for keh-jup. Tomato sauce/juice. I always thought it was odd that we use a Cantonese word for it as keh-jup isn't really that popular in China.

Neither. I say it like catch-up. Yeah, I get made fun of sometimes.

"Tomato sauce" - but since I'm an aussie, it's not really relevant to the discussion...

Does it really matter? The standard of identity is the same regardless of which label is attached to the bottle. Isn't the difference regional?

'Nother Aussie for tomato sauce, here.

...huh, of course the Aussies made me rethink - ketchup, yes, throughout the UK as far as I'm aware - but also the (definitely accurate, if not all that informative) 'red sauce'

To distinguish from brown sauce. Which is made from... er... actually, I'm not convinced I need to know, scratch that question.

Don't they call it catsup in the old cartoons? We call it tomato sauce, actually. But I've got used to calling it ketchup because of fast food restaurants and living overseas.

This post just reminds me of an old simpsons episode when Mr Burns is at a supermarket and can't decide between the ketchup or the catsup ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biW2i9yK-10

Oh, yeah - let me put in another vote for 'Tomato Sauce'!