# Sauce

Sauce is imageboard slang for source, a one-word demand for attribution on unsourced images, clips, or claims. The term jumped from a 2002 Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex chatroom joke into a 2004 4chan word filter and became one of the longest-running pieces of imageboard vocabulary.

## Origin
The "sauce = source" gag traces to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, the 2002 anime that first aired on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in November 2004[3]. In episode 9, "The Man Who Dwells in the Shadows of the Net," a virtual-reality chatroom scene shows one avatar asking for sources while another mocks him with the words "sarce" and "soy sauce."

Shortly after the U.S. broadcast, 4chan users started spamming "SOURCE!" and "SOURCE PLZ!" on unattributed posts. Site founder Moot, inspired by the anime, added a word filter that auto-replaced every instance of "source" with "sauce"[1]. The filter was eventually retired, but by then the substitution had already stuck as everyday slang.

- **Platform:** 4chan (via Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex anime reference)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2004

## Overview
On 4chan and adjacent imageboards, "SAUCE?" or "SAUCE PLZ!" is the reply of choice whenever a poster drops an interesting image, clip, or claim without attribution[3]. The word usually appears in all caps, often paired with modifiers like "ZOMG," "OMG," or "PLZ" for extra pleading energy. Its purpose is simple: pin down the origin of unsourced content, whether that means an artist name, a manga chapter, a hentai title, or the source video of a reaction GIF.

Fan-run tools built on the term followed, including the reverse-image search engine SauceNAO, the request site SaucePlz, and Zomgsauce, all riffing on the filter-era joke[3]. The word's staying power comes from raw utility, image-heavy communities need a fast one-word way to ask "where is this from?"

## How to Use
Typical usage is a short, all-caps reply to a post that shows an image, video, or fact without attribution: "SAUCE?", "SAUCE PLZ," or "ZOMG SAUCE" all work. It is a common convention to stack pleading modifiers like PLZ, OMG, or ZOMG for tone, and to keep the request to a single line so it stands out inside a fast-moving thread. On art or anime boards the expected answer is an artist handle, a doujin/manga title, or a link to the original video.

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Sauce?
Sauce is imageboard slang for "source," used to ask where an image, clip, or claim came from[4].

### Where did Sauce come from?
It comes from a 2004 4chan word filter that automatically swapped "source" for "sauce," inspired by a chatroom scene in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex[1].

### What does Sauce mean?
It means the same thing as "source," i.e. the original artist, video, or context behind a piece of unattributed content[4].

### How do you use Sauce?
Reply to an unsourced post with "SAUCE?" or "SAUCE PLZ," often in all caps and paired with modifiers like ZOMG, OMG, or PLZ[2].

### Is Sauce still popular?
Yes, it is a classic piece of imageboard slang that has stayed in regular use across anime and art communities since the 2004 4chan word filter era[1].

## References
1. [https://4-ch.net/dqn/kareha.pl/1123315554/](<https://4-ch.net/dqn/kareha.pl/1123315554/>)
2. [https://www.lurkmore.com/wiki/4chan_Wordfilters#.2Fb.2F](<https://www.lurkmore.com/wiki/4chan_Wordfilters#.2Fb.2F>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sauce](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sauce>)
4. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sauce&defid=964029](<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sauce&defid=964029>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/sauce
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