Etymologically
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caramel

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈkɑɹməl/[1]
  • UK: /ˈkæɹəˌmɛl/, /-məl/[1]

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
  • 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