Tsuyu (dipping broth, 1914)

[Benjamin Barrett]

I don't see tsuyu in the OED. "Soup" seems to be a common way to referring to this. I think that's what the waiter in the pseudo-Japanese restaurant responded with when I asked for tsuyu and he didn't know the word.

1. The earliest I see on Google Books for "tsuyu" as dipping broth is 1914, though the authors seem to confuse tsuyu (つゆ or 汁) "broth, dipping broth" and tsuyu "dew" (露).

The world's story: a history of the world in story, song and art, ed. by Eva March Tappan (Google eBook)) (http://ow.ly/63121)
Karl Julius Ploetz, Horatio Willis Dresser
Houghton Mifflin company

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Then comes the first "honorable" table, a small lacquered tray with lacquered blows upon it, containing a covered basin of tsuyu-soup--the "honorable dew"--a little pot of soy, a gilded platter with various sweet and aromatic condiments upon it, and some wonderful vegetables, environing some fairy cutlets of salmon.
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2. The next occurrence jumps to 1964:

The East, Volumes 1-3, East Publications, Inc., page 38 (http://ow.ly/630VM)

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_Udon_ and _soba_ can be bought in most food stores in Japan, so one need only know how to prepare the soup, or _tsuyu_: Dried bonito flakes...
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Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

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