“Ketchup” And Other Words That Come From Mandarin Or Cantonese Think you only speak English? Think again. While you may not be fluent or able to write in another language, the fact is that English consists largely of words we’ve borrowed from other languages. In fact, about 80% of the English language is made up of these loanwords. Let’s take a look at some of the words English ultimately owes to Chinese, along one etymological pathway or another. ketchup As American as this condiment may seem, the word apparently comes from the Chinese language. Via the Malay kəchap (“fish sauce”), ketchup is believed to derive from two Chinese forms: kéjāp (Guangdong) and ke-tsiap (Xiamen). The literal Chinese translation is “eggplant juice.” Hmm, so when did tomato get mixed up in it? tofu Whether or not ketchup on tofu sounds tasty is up to you, but the word for this healthy, soybean-based food also comes to us from China. It comes into English from Japanese (tōfu), which is itself heavily indebted to the Chinese language. The old Chinese word dòufu combines dòu, meaning “bean” and fǔ, meaning “turn sour, ferment.” tycoon Ah, if only we could all be tycoons. Defined as “a person of great wealth, influence, or power,” the word tycoon comes from the Japanese word taikun, which is equivalent to the Chinese words dà, meaning “great” and jūn, meaning “prince.” Similar in sound, but less enviable, is the word typhoon, which also ultimately comes from Chinese. It’s akin to the word dàfēng meaning, “great wind,” which, in turn, was altered by association with the Greek word tȳphôn, meaning “violent wind.” kowtow If you kowtow to your boss or your bossy sister-in-law, you’re deferring to them or letting them have their way. The word stems from the Cantonese word kòutóu, which means to “ knock (one’s) head,” but we don’t recommend ever kowtowing to anyone that hard. To be continued