Re: What's the etymology of ketchup/catsup?

Danny Wier wrote:
>Let's get to the point.  My question is natlang-related: what is the
etymology
>of "ketchup" or "catsup" (Hindi, right?), and why the two different
spellings?
>And I've seen recipes for non-tomato based ketchup; I remember a mushroom
>ketchup.  Is there any relation to East Indian chutney?>
Just saw something on this the other day, either on the web, or else the
Sunday NYT, my only sources of news...... Barry's later post has it about
right, Chinese dialect, probably a southern one.  Wherever I saw it, it was
spelled both ketsiap and kejiap.  I've always understood (malaycentrism?)
that the word came to Engl. via Malay, kechap, so probably thanks to the
Brits in Malaya... but on due consideration it could just as easily have
come from the trading posts in Canton or Hong Kong too.  In Ml./Indonesian
it refers to their variety of (sweetened) soy sauce.
The article I read mentioned the two Engl. spellings, also, that whichever
manufacturer called it Catsup (Del Monte?) was now switching to Kechup.
Perhaps the -ts- version reflects a Chinese origin, the -ch- the Malay?

JFK (just for kicks), there's a delicious fish in SE Asian waters known in
Malay as _kakap_....in older British writing it's called _cockup_.