Also 7 souy. [a. Japanese soy (also shoy), colloquial form of shō-yu or siyau-yu, ad. Chinese shi-yu, shi-yau, etc., f. shi salted beans, or the like, used as condiments + yu oil. The Japanese form is also the source of Malay soi, Du. soya, soja.]
1. A sauce prepared chiefly in Japan, China, and India, from the beans of Soja hispida (Dolichos soja), and eaten with fish, etc.
A full account of the method of preparation is given by Ure, Dict. Arts (1839), 1158.
1696. Ovington, Voy. Suratt, 397. Souy the choicest of all Sawces.
1699. Dampier, Voy. (1729), II. I. 28. I have been told that Soy is made partly with a fishy Composition…, tho’ a Gentleman … told me that it was made only with Wheat, and a Sort of Beans mixt with Water and Salt.
1747–96. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, x. 174. Dish them up with plain butter and soy.
1779. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 2), IV. 2511/2. This legumen … serves for the preparation of … a pickle celebrated among them [sc. the Japanese] under the name of sooju or soy.
1817. Byron, Beppo, vii. From travellers accustom’d from a boy To eat their salmon, at the least, with soy.
1853. Blackw. Mag., March, 280. She put soy instead of sherry into the soda water compound she was mixing.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., II. (1872), 191. A sauce or catsup, as thick as treacle and of a clear black colour, called Soy, which is much esteemed.
2. Bot. The soy-bean, Soja hispida.
1880. Bessey, Botany, 532. Many more species [of food-plants] are now cultivated in India, such as Chowlee, Black Grain, Soy,… etc.
1884. trans. De Candolle’s Orig. Cultivated Pl., 330. Soy is also grown in the Malay Archipelago.
3. attrib., as soy biscuit, flour, -sauce; soy-bean, = sense 2.
1802. Pinkerton, Mod. Geogr., II. 170. The ginger, the soy bean,… are cultivated here [sc. in Japan].
1818. Todd (transl. Thunberg), Soy-sauce is prepared from soy-beans (dolichos soja) and salt, mixed with barley or wheat.
1882. Garden, 29 July, 93/1. Soy Beans … vary considerably in size, shape, and colour.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 225. ‘Soy’ flour … contains about 24 per cent. [of carbo-hydrates],… while some soy biscuits … contain twice as much.
