_Catsup, Catchup, or Ketchup._
Will any of your philological readers be so obliging as to communicate
any _note_ he may have touching the original or definition of the word
_Catchup?_
It does not appear in Johnson's _Dictionary_. Mr. Todd, in his edition,
inserts it with an asterisk, denoting it as a new introduction, and
under _Catsup_ says, see _Catchup_. Under this latter word he
says--"Sometimes _improperly_ written _Ketchup_, a poignant liquor made
from boiled mushrooms, mixed with salt, used in cooking to add a
pleasant flavour to sauces." He gives no _derivation_ of the word
_itself_, and yet pronounces the very common way of spelling it
improper.
What reference to, or connexion with, _mushrooms_ has the word?--and why
_Catsup_, with the inference that it is synonymous with _Catchup_?