I heard from an English man that the katsu karē (カツカレー) dish was from English
inspiration originally: he told me that the word 'katsu' is coming from cutlet
and 'karē' would be curry.

Please can anyone confirm this ?
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2014-07-01T13:39:10.097
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etymology loanwords food
What is the etymology of the word Katsu?
Your hypothesis that カツ stems from _cutlet_ seems correct. According to
[kotobank](http://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%82%AB%E3%83%84?dic=daijirin), カツ is the
shortened form of カツレツ, i.e. _cutlet_. See
[here](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%B1%9A%E3%82%AB%E3%83%84#.E6.AD.B4.E5.8F.B2)
for its culinary history.
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2014-07-01T13:56:42.617
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A couple of things to add:

  * When you hear just `カツ`, it is usually indicative of **_pork_** cutlets (`[豚]{とん}カツ`). Any other types are listed explicitly with what they actually are. For example, chicken cutlets are `チキンカツ`, beef is `ビーフカツ`, etc.
  * `カレー` is Japanese style curry, not to be confused with `カリー` which is Indian style curry.
  * カツ丼 is the greatest food ever!
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2014-07-01T14:56:54.117
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The word katsu (カツ) is just the English word, "cuts" written as katakana
according to how a Japanese person would pronounce it (ka tsu).

Also, as pointed out above, it may have its origins from the word "cutlets"
which is written out as カツレツ (ka tsu re tsu).
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2014-07-02T05:09:34.397
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> the katsu karē (カツカレー) dish was from English inspiration originally

Although カレー(curry), or カレーライス(curry rice), has a British inspiration as
@virmaior says ([Curry was introduced to Japan during the Meiji era
(1868–1912) by the British...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_curry) /
[今、日本人が一般に食べている「カレーライス」は、「インドのカレー」ではなく、「イギリスのカレー」です](http://www.city.yokosuka.kanagawa.jp/4415/curry/profile/profile2.html)),
the dish [カツカレー(curry rice with pork
cutlet)](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AB%E3%83%84%E3%82%AB%E3%83%AC%E3%83%BC)
itself was not inspired by British cuisine; it is a combination of
[豚]{とん}カツ(tonkatsu/pork cutlet) and カレーライス, which is said to have been
invented and first served at the restaurant called
[スイスグリル](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AA%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B9#.E3.82.AB.E3.83.84.E3.82.AB.E3.83.AC.E3.83.BC.E3.81.AE.E7.99.BA.E7.A5.A5)
in Tokyo in 1948.

> the word 'katsu' is coming from cutlet and 'karē' would be curry

Hmm... yes and no; the term カツカレー was coined from "豚カツ" + "カレーライス", rather
than from "cutlet" + "curry".

The term [豚]{とん}カツ was coined from "豚(pork)" and "カツレツ(cutlet)"([The term
"tonkatsu" (pork katsu) was coined in the
1930s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu#History)), though the dish
カツレツ(katsuretsu) originated from a French dish
"cotelette"([明治時代に日本に伝来したフランス料理のコートレット（Cotelette、英語ではカットレット
Cutlet）を原型とする料理である。](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AB%E3%83%84%E3%83%AC%E3%83%84#.E6.A6.82.E8.A6.81)
/
[東京銀座のフランス料理店「煉瓦亭」にて、フランス料理として提供されていた。](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AB%E3%83%84%E3%83%AC%E3%83%84#.E6.AD.B4.E5.8F.B2)).
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