tofu

Etymology

It is borrowed from Japanese 豆腐 (tōfu),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Chinese 豆腐 (dòufu),^[2][5][7][8] from 豆 (dòu, “beans”) and 腐 (fǔ, “rotten; to turn sour, ferment”).^[2][5][7][8] The American Heritage Dictionary gives the source of the Japanese word as Middle Chinese, the ancestor also of the modern Mandarin word.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A curd made in Japan and China from mashed soya beans: 1704, in the Churchills' translation of Navarrete's account of China.^[2] The OED's 1989 edition dated it to 1880,^[9] Merriam-Webster gives 1771,^[3] and Etymonline 1876.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the same food, bean curd.^[2][10] Evans's dictionary of Japanese loanwords quotes American magazines of the 1990s presenting it as a health food and a low-fat substitute for meat and dairy products, once known mainly to health-food enthusiasts and then increasingly sold in mainstream markets.^[11]

Timeline

• 1704 – bean curd, in an account of China.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1771, Etymonline to 1876.^[3][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soft, pale, cheese-like food made by curdling soya-bean milk with a coagulant and pressing the curd; bean curd.^{[12][3][4][2]}

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Evans, Tom (1997), A Dictionary of Japanese Loanwords, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins