Actually, it only gave us the word. Pondering and sharing my hatred for the red slop required that I type ketchup repeatedly in recent days. That started me wondering how such an unusual word found its way into our fair language. My hefty NOAD tells me it has Cantonese origin: k'ē chap = tomato juice. Merriam-Webster traces it farther South: kĕchap is Malay for fish sauce. More from Wikipedia. /mg
(Sticklers for diacritical marks, or fans of the catsup or catchup spellings are encouraged to knock me in the comments for sloppiness.)
