What's the difference between catsup and ketchup?

I always wondered this. It's got me puzzled.

 

Spelling.

Really, thats all.

 

Catsup is made from 100% real cats. Ketchup is artificial.

 

One's mad eout of real cats. It's supposedly chunkier!

EDIT - Apparently, Hama beat me to the joke.

 

I hear that Catsup, if left in your icechest for some time will spawn into a human eating cat.

Oh really, just the spelling. That's it.

 

Why the hell do they have 2 names for it then? Damn people.

 

From a Dear Cecil column:

Cecil replies:

There is an interesting answer for this, and then there is the real answer. The interesting answer is that our word ketchup, which originally meant a spicy fish sauce, comes from the Malay kechap, which Dutch traders transliterated as ketjap. But it turns out the Malays had borrowed the word from the Chinese ke-tsiap, which I gather sounds more like catsup. So you could argue that European merchants called their spicy fish sauce ketchup or catsup depending on whether they'd bought it in Malaya or China.

 

My cousin says the name difference is because catsup is more tomato tasting than ketchup, but I don't believe him because he tends to lie.

 

ive seen it spelt different, but ive never heard people call it that.

 

Anyone else kind of concerned that both Hama and Cabbie made cat jokes at the same time?

And catsup blows. Ketchup is the way to go.

Amazing.

 

I always thought Catsup was just a brand name.

 

I thought Ketchup was.

 

I thought Heinz copyrighted "ketchup" so everyone else has to call it catsup.

 

copywrite of "brand" name. now, it's more generic to the public, like Kleenex is to facial tissue. but name ownership is still ownership, so cannot poach, as in LFL products.

 

Like Band-Aid!

 

I thought ketchup was the English word and Catsup is the American... not sure though but certainly no one I know in England says Catsup to my knowledge!

 

What the heck?

You Brits! Don't assume anything!

We call it "Ketchup" and spell it like that too...