soy

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Dutch soja,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from “soi”, the Satsuma (Kagoshima) pronunciation of Japanese 醤油 (shōyu, “soy sauce”),^[7][8] from a Middle Chinese compound,^[7][4] compare Chinese 醬油 (jiàngyóu, “soy sauce”), from 醬 (jiàng, “bean paste”) and 油 (yóu, “oil”).^[6][7][8] Etymonline, Barnhart, Ayto and Weekley give the Chinese source as “shi-yu”, "salted beans" + "oil".^{[3][2][9][10]} The OED does not insist on Dutch, and notes that a route through Malay has been suggested but that the word is not found in that language.^[7] Barnhart argues for Dutch transmission, since the Dutch traded with Japan throughout the period, from 1624 to 1868, when the English had no contact with it.^[2][11] The form soya is the Dutch one.^[9][11][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sauce made from fermented soybeans: 1679, as saio according to Barnhart,^[2][12][3] and 1696, as souy, in J. Ovington's Voyage to Suratt, the OED's first quotation.^[7][2] Etymonline describes the early sauce as one used with fish.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that the Japanese word refers only to the sauce, the bean being called daizu, "large bean", and that the English word too first meant the sauce.^[7] It was then used of the plant, from 1778,^[7] probably by way of soybean and helped by the botanical Latin soja in the plant's former names.^[7] The compound soy sauce is recorded from 1795.^[3][2] From 1945 soy also meant flour, meal or protein made from soybeans and used in foods, often in place of meat.^[7] Collins notes that soy for the plant is American and Canadian, where British English says soya.^[13][6]

Timeline

• 1679 – saio, a sauce from soybeans.^[2][12]
• 1696 – souy, in Ovington's Voyage to Suratt.^[7][2]
• 1778 – the soybean plant.^[7]
• 1795 – soy sauce.^[3][2]
• 1945 – flour, meal or protein from soybeans.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Soy sauce, a salty brown sauce made from fermented soybeans.^[12][13][7]
2. (chiefly US and Canada) The soybean plant or its seeds; soya.^[13][12][7]
3. Food made from soybeans, such as soy flour or soy protein, often used in place of meat.^[7]

Word family

• soy sauce

Related words

• soya
• shoyu
• soybean

Usage notes

In Scots a separate word soy, borrowed from French soie, meant silk, usually as silken soy; the OED records it from 1765 to 1927.^[7][14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)