why is there catsup and ketchup?

Answer 1

I think it just depends where you grow up. In Canada, it's ketchup, in some parts of the States it's catsup.

Answer 2

it's a cultural thing in america --catsup was the proper term. and I don't remember exactly but I think ketchup was the new name that was a commercial item that overtook the term "catsup"

Answer 3

According to the ketchup advisory board ketchup has natural mellowing agents

Answer 4

Its not where u live, my grama worked at a resturaunt and thats how the sell it at where ever you get food look nextime you order something with like extra ketchup or something

Answer 5

Early uses in English
The word entered the English language in England during the late seventeenth century, appearing in print as catchup and later as ketchup. The following is a list of early quotations collected by the Oxford English Dictionary.

1690, B. E., A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew
Catchup: a high East-India Sauce.
1711, Charles Lockyer, An Account of the Trade in India 128
Soy comes in Tubbs from Jappan, and the best Ketchup from Tonquin; yet good of both sorts are made and sold very cheap in China.
1730, Jonathan Swift, A Panegyrick on the Dean Wks. 1755 IV. I. 142
And, for our home-bred British cheer, Botargo, catsup, and caveer.
1748, Sarah Harrison, The Housekeeper's Pocket-Book and Compleat Family Cook. i. (ed. 4) 2,
I therefore advise you to lay in a Store of Spices, ... neither ought you to be without ... Kitchup, or Mushroom Juice.
1751, Mrs. Hannah Glasse, Cookery Bk. 309
It will taste like foreign Catchup.
1817, George Gordon Byron, Beppo viii,
Buy in gross ... Ketchup, Soy, Chili~vinegar, and Harvey.
1832, Vegetable Substances Used for the Food of Man 333
One ... application of mushrooms is ... converting them into the sauce called Catsup.
1840, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1849) 91/1
Some lamb chops (breaded, with plenty of ketchup).
1845, Eliza Acton, Modern Cookery v. (1850) 136 (L.)
Walnut catsup.
1862, Macmillan's Magazine. Oct. 466
He found in mothery catsup a number of yellowish globular bodies.
1874, Mordecai C. Cooke, Fungi; Their Nature, Influence and Uses 89
One important use to which several ... fungi can be applied, is the manufacture of ketchup.
The spelling catsup seems to have appeared first from the pen of Jonathan Swift, in 1730.

The China connection
The most popular theory is that the word ketchup was derived from "koe-chiap" or "ke-tsiap" in the Amoy dialect of China, where it meant the brine of pickled fish or shellfish[8]. Some people prefer the Malayan word "kechap" (spelled ketjap by the Dutch), which may have come from the Chinese in the first place. The Malay word means taste. And in some time in the late seventeenth century, the name and some samples might have arrived in England where it appeared in print as "catchup" in 1690 and then as "ketchup" in 1711. These names stuck with the British, who quickly appropriated them for their own pickled condiments of anchovies or oysters.

The exact Chinese characters for kôechiap have been disputed:

Theory 1: "ketchup" means "茄汁": "茄" is the Chinese character for "eggplant" or a shortened form of "tomato" (蕃茄). "Ketchup" means "茄汁" or "tomato juice (sauce)".
Pronunciations in modern Taiwanese dialect (mainly Hokkien dialect): Kio-chiap (kio as in "kyo" in tokyo, chiap as in "chap" in chaplain but with the added "i"). The word derives from two words "Kio" taken from "Ang Mor Kio" meaning tomatoes in Hokkien dialect. Chiap simply means juice or sauce or gravy. Therefore Kio-chiap means tomato(kio) sauce(chiap).
Pronunciations in modern Cantonese is Ke-Jup - pronounced remarkably the same as the English ketchup but with emphasis on the "ke" and the Voiceless postalveolar affricate "ch" sound is altered to a "j" pronounciation. Similar to the Taiwanese, the word derives from the meaning of two words, Ke, taken from "Fan Ke" meaning tomatoes in Cantonese and jup meaning juice or sauce or gravy. Therefore Ke-Jup means tomato sauce.
Theory 2: "ketchup" means "鮭汁": "鮭" is the Chinese character for "salmon" (鮭魚), or more generically, "fish". Therefore, "ketchup" means "鮭汁" or "fish sauce".
Pronunciations in modern Taiwanese dialect: 鮭(kôe) 汁(chiap)
Pronunciations in modern Cantonese: 鮭(gwai1) 汁(jap1)

Answer 6

I don't know.

Answer 7

no diffewrence besinds how u spell it.