soy: [17] Chinese shi-yu is the ultimate source of soy (shi means ‘salted beans’ and yu means ‘oil’). Japanese adopted the term as shō-yu, whose colloquial form soy was borrowed by English at the end of the 17th century. Dutch acquired shō-yu as soja, from which English gets soya [17].
1670s, saio "soybean-based Asian fish sauce," from Dutch soya, from Japanese soyu, variant of shoyu "soy," from Chinese shi-yu, from shi "fermented soy beans" + yu "oil." Etymology reflects Dutch presence in Japan before English and American merchants began to trade there.
