Home → Food History → What is the Origin of the Word Soy in Soy Sauce?

What is the Origin of the Word Soy in Soy Sauce?

by

This article may contain one or more independently chosen Amazon affiliate links. See full disclosure.

Although soy sauce comes originally from China, the origin of the word soy comes from the Japanese word shoyu. This has nothing to do with the actual Japanese word for soybeans themselves, which is daizu. The Chinese word for soy sauce, on the other hand, is jiàngyóu, while the word for the beans is dàdòu. So, our English word soy does not come from the word for the beans themselves, but from the Japanese word for the sauce, which first appeared in Japan sometime in the 1500s.

Traditional fermentation vats showing the origin of the word soy in soy sauce production.

In a rare case of linguistic reversal, the soybean didn’t give its name to the sauce; the sauce gave its name to the bean. As I explore in the language of food, our naming conventions often strip away the history and culture of food. And food language is food culture. While our modern English word “soy” is an innocent passenger on a long and winding road-trip from ancient Asian traditions to modern tables, the richness found in peeling back the layers is a goldmine of culinary connections.

A Philosopher’s Spelling Error: The Origin of the Word Soy

The origin of the English word soy for the sauce seems to have come from philosopher John Locke, writing in his journal in 1679. He talked about two sauces that were the most common types of sauces coming from the East Indies, mango and shoyu. He rendered the word shoyu as saio, which went on to be simplified to soya or soy by later written references.

This naming error is a close cousin to the common redundant food names we see today, like ‘Chai Tea’ or ‘Naan Bread.’ In those cases, English speakers adopted a foreign word for a product without realizing the word was simply the generic term for that product. With soy, we went a step further, not only did we treat the word for ‘sauce’ as a proper name, but we eventually applied it to the plant itself, creating the ‘Soy Bean’ (literally, the ‘Sauce Bean’).

From Miso Byproduct to Global Staple

Soy sauce actually was the first fermented bean (legume) product that was introduced to Europe from Asia, and is still the most widespread fermented legume product on Earth.

Although modern soy sauce making is a highly refined and scientific process, and it is not known exactly how it was made in the earliest times, it is thought that the liquid was simply a byproduct of the making of fermented soybean pastes such as miso, or the Chinese ancestor of miso, chiang.

A dark liquid would pool at the top of the fermenting vats which would be skimmed off and used as a sauce. Over time, processes were developed to make this liquid sauce specifically. Even today, the making of soy sauce is a bit different than the making of miso, which results in soy sauce having a more complex, sharper, and stronger flavor than miso paste.

The “Soy Boy” Myth: Is Soy An Offensive Name

Of course, the word soy, though rooted in a mistake, is innocent of any crimes. However, in recent years, the word “soy” has taken on a strange new life as an online slur: the “soy boy.” This pejorative is used to mock men perceived as weak or feminine, based on the pseudo-scientific claim that the phytoestrogens in soybeans physically “feminize” men by lowering testosterone.

Here is the linguistic and biological reality: While soybeans do contain isoflavones (plant estrogens), they are structurally different from human estrogen. Dozens of clinical studies have confirmed that soy consumption has zero effect on male hormone levels. Much like the 17th-century naming of the bean itself, the “soy boy” label is a case of hearing a word—in this case, “estrogen”— and inventing a story that ignores the actual science.

The ‘Soy Boy’ slur and the fear of rBGH in milk are two sides of the same coin. They both rely on the ‘Linguistics of Fear,’ taking a scientific-sounding word like ‘hormone’ or ‘estrogen’ and stripping away the biological context (like the fact that rBGH is species-specific and phytoestrogens don’t bind to human receptors). Whether it’s a 17th-century spelling error or a 21st-century myth, the names we give our food often say more about our anxieties than the food itself.

The Linguistic Ghost: Why There’s No Need for “Soy Guilt”

None of what I have said here means you should feel guilty for using the word ‘soy.’ While the origin of the word soy is technically a ‘ghost’ of a 17th-century mistranslation, that is simply how language works. We don’t feel guilty for saying ‘apple’ (which used to refer to almost any fruit) or ‘muscle’ (which comes from the Latin for ‘little mouse’). Using the word soy isn’t an erasure of culture; it’s a testimony to how food travels across the globe. The goal of peeling back these layers isn’t to change your vocabulary—it’s to appreciate the complex, sometimes messy journey our food took to get to our tables.

Key Summary Points for “Origin of the Word Soy in Soy Sauce”

  • The English word “soy” comes from the Japanese word for soy sauce, “shoyu.” It is not related to the actual Japanese word for soybeans, “daizu.”
  • The first known use of the word soy in print is in a 1679 journal by philosopher John Locke, who wrote the Japanese word “shoyu” as “saio.”
  • Later sources simplified Locke’s spelling as “soya” or “soy.”
  • Soy sauce was the first fermented bean product that came from Asia to Europe and is still the most popular fermented legume product in the world today.
  • The first soy sauces were likely byproducts of making other fermented soybean products, like miso paste, being the liquid skimmed off the top of the fermentation vats. 
  • Due to the difference in the production process, soy sauce has a more complex, sharper, and stronger flavor than miso. 

Let’s Rev Up Our Engines for More Linguistic Road-Trips