um, this may be a dumb question but...

ok, don't laugh...

what's the difference between catsup and ketchup?

 

i guess maybe catsup can be made from apples or pears, but ketchup is made from tomatos

 

The spelling.

 

I found this i guess no real differnce


KETCHUP: Also catchup, Catsup. A condiment consisting of a thick,
smooth-textured, spicy sauce usually made from tomatoes.[Probably
Malay kechap, fish sauce possibly from Chinese (Cantonese) ke-tsiap]

Notes: The word ketchup exemplifies the types of modifications that
can take place in the borrowing process, both in the borrowing of a
word and in the borrowing of a substance. The source of our word
ketchup may be the Malay word kechap, possibly taken into Malay from
the Cantonese dialect of Chinese. Kechap, like our word, referred to
a kind of sauce, but a sauce without tomatoes; rather, it contained
fish brine, herbs, and spices. The sauce seems to have emigrated to
Europe by way of sailors, where it was made with locally available
ingredients such as the juice of mushrooms or walnuts. At some point,
when the juice of tomatoes was first used, ketchup as we know it was
born. However, it is important to realize that in the 18th and 19th
centuries ketchup was a generic term for sauces whose only common
ingredient was vinegar. The word is first recorded in English in 1690
in the form catchup, in 1711 in the form ketchup, and in 1730 in the
form catsup. These three spelling variants of a foreign borrowing
remain current.

 

ah, fascinating.


thanks

 

You probably mean ketchup and ketjap (kecap).
Ketchup is usually made from tomatoes whilst ketjap is made from soja.

'Kecap' (say ketjap) in the Malay language means soja.

 

um, no I don't think that's what I mean, because I've never heard of ketjap before. Catsup and Ketchup. I figured it was the same thing but for some reason it was just weird in my head.

 

bingo!

 

In that case I am sorry.