caramel

Etymology

It is borrowed from French caramel (“burnt sugar”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in French from the 17th century,^[3] from Spanish caramelo,^{[2][5][7][6][8]} earlier caramel.^[3][4][9] The Spanish word's origin is uncertain.^[2][3][6][8] One explanation goes back to Late Latin calamellus (“little reed, little tube”), a diminutive of calamus (“reed, cane”), from Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos),^[10][11][12] with the Portuguese word, meaning "icicle" as well as "caramel", as a step between them,^[11][13][10] and Scheler, cited by the OED, saw a reference to the tubular shape of the sweet.^[2] The other goes back to Medieval Latin cannamella (“sugar cane”) or cannamellis, as if from canna (“cane”) and the genitive mellis (“of honey”);^{[2][3][4][14]} Barnhart traces the Spanish word through Occitan canamel (“sugar cane”) (Provençal in his terms), and Etymonline traces the word for honey to Proto-Indo-European *melit- (“honey”).^[4][3] Several dictionaries combine the two: Klein calls the Spanish word a blend of cannamella and caramillo (“reed”), from calamellus,^[9] Barnhart says that caramillo influenced its form,^[4] and Dictionary.com takes it from calamellus with its meaning changed by association with the word for sugar cane.^[12] Littré, according to the OED, conjectured an Arabic source.^[2][3] The word is also caramello and caramelo.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Burnt sugar: 1653 by Merriam-Webster's date,^[11][15] 1725 in the OED, whose first quotation is from R. Bradley's Chomel's Dictionaire Œconomique;^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline also date it to 1725.^[4][3] Dictionary.com dates it to 1715–25.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the brown substance left when sugar is heated until it loses water, used to colour and flavour food and drink.^[2][3] From 1884 it was also used of a sweet, a chewy, dark, creamy candy flavoured with browned sugar;^[2][3][4] in 1909 it was first recorded as the name of a brown colour.^[2][3] Minsheu's dictionary, quoted by Weekley, glossed the Spanish caramelo as a kind of marchpane or delicate confection.^[14] A verb caramel, in the sense of caramelize, is recorded from 1727.^[2][11]

Timeline

• 1653 – burnt sugar, by Merriam-Webster's date.^[11][15]
• 1725 – burnt sugar, used for colouring, first quotation in the OED.^[2][4]
• 1727 – verb, to caramelize.^[2]
• 1884 – a chewy sweet.^[2][3][4]
• 1909 – a light brown colour.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Sugar heated until it turns brown and bitter, used to colour and flavour food and drink.^[8][11][2]
2. A firm, chewy sweet made from sugar, butter and milk: a box of salted caramels.^[8][11][15]
3. A light or yellowish brown colour.^[2][5][16]

Verb

1. To caramelize.^[11][2]

Word family

• caramelise
• caramelize
• creme caramel

Related words

• cane
• calamus
• shawm
• melliferous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Encarta World English Dictionary (2009 ed.), Redmond: Microsoft