Adapted from another forum:
Well, according to the april fool's day almanac, "ketchup" indeed owes its origin to the Cantonese dialect of the Canton region of China in the old days.
When the American railroad was at the peak of its expansion, hordes of labourers were imported from the Kwantung Province of China to supplement the shortage of railroad workers.
At that time, there was no such thing as tomato sauce in America. When the Chinese labourers brought this "delicacy" to the "Golden Mountain", they slowly introduced this sauce to the locals. And as the Cantonese could not speak the "perfect" American English, they just called the sauce the way they said it in Cantonese, i.e. "Kae jup". Americans picked up the name and slightly modified the intonation to "Ketchup".
Ketchup existed before anyone outside the Americas had ever seen a tomato. Originally this sauce was made out of pickled fish. It originated in Eastern Asia; the word ketchup is used in Chinese, Malay and Indonesian (e.g., kecap manis - traditional spelling 'kitjap manis'). English and Dutch sailors brought the Asian ketchup to Europe, where many flavourings, such as mushrooms, anchovies and nuts, were added to the basic fish sauce. Whether the tomato was also added to ketchup in England is not certain, and it is likely that this important event first happened in the USA.
Interesting huh?
Well, according to the april fool's day almanac, "ketchup" indeed owes its origin to the Cantonese dialect of the Canton region of China in the old days.
When the American railroad was at the peak of its expansion, hordes of labourers were imported from the Kwantung Province of China to supplement the shortage of railroad workers.
At that time, there was no such thing as tomato sauce in America. When the Chinese labourers brought this "delicacy" to the "Golden Mountain", they slowly introduced this sauce to the locals. And as the Cantonese could not speak the "perfect" American English, they just called the sauce the way they said it in Cantonese, i.e. "Kae jup". Americans picked up the name and slightly modified the intonation to "Ketchup".
Ketchup existed before anyone outside the Americas had ever seen a tomato. Originally this sauce was made out of pickled fish. It originated in Eastern Asia; the word ketchup is used in Chinese, Malay and Indonesian (e.g., kecap manis - traditional spelling 'kitjap manis'). English and Dutch sailors brought the Asian ketchup to Europe, where many flavourings, such as mushrooms, anchovies and nuts, were added to the basic fish sauce. Whether the tomato was also added to ketchup in England is not certain, and it is likely that this important event first happened in the USA.
Interesting huh?
