jelly

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French gelee (“frost; jelly”),^[2][3][4][5] also gelé,^[2] a noun use of the feminine past participle of geler (“to freeze, congeal”).^[3][6][7] This goes back to Vulgar Latin *gelāta (“something frozen”),^[8][9] recorded in post-classical Latin in an 8th-century glossary,^[2] the feminine of gelātus (“frozen, congealed”), past participle of gelō (“to freeze”),^[2][6][8] from gelū (“frost”),^[3][4][10] from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold; to freeze”).^[8][11] The same Latin verb gave congeal,^[9][5] and the same root gelatin.^[12] Johnson (1755) derived it from gelatinum and preferred the spelling with g-.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A semi-solid food made by boiling and cooling a liquid that contains gelatin, used as a dish of meat or fish set in aspic: 1381, in the cookery text Diuersa Servicia.^[2][3][11] The French word had meant "frost" since about 1100, and is recorded for jelly as a food only from the late 14th century.^[2][14]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages jelly was a savoury dish of meat or fish set in aspic.^[12][11] Sweet, fruit-flavoured jellies appear later: the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins finds the first references in the mid 18th century, and the OED's first example of the brightly coloured dessert is from Parson Woodforde's diary of 1791.^[12][2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "Any thing brought to a state of glutinousness and viscosity" and as a sweetmeat made by boiling sugar.^[13] From about 1400 it was used of any jelly-like substance,^[2][11] and later for the jellyfish (a1668),^[2] for gelatin itself (1800), and for gels used in microscopy (1852), as lubricants (1877) and as contraceptives (1922).^[2] The figurative use, of something that lacks firmness, is recorded from 1603, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and is now common in turn to jelly.^[2] The verb followed: the OED records it from 1559,^[2] Merriam-Webster from 1590 and Barnhart from 1601, in Holland's translation of Pliny.^[6][3] Its back-formation jell began in American English in the 19th century.^[5][10]

Timeline

• 1381 – a savoury food set with gelatin, such as meat or fish in aspic.^[2][3]
• a1400 – any jelly-like substance.^[2]
• 1559 – verb, to make into jelly; 1570, to set as jelly.^[2]
• 1603 – something lacking firmness (Shakespeare).^[2]
• a1668 – a jellyfish.^[2]
• 1709 – a small glass dish for serving jelly.^[2]
• 1791 – a sweet fruit-flavoured dessert.^[2]
• 1800 – gelatin.^[2]
• 1922 – a contraceptive gel.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sweet, clear, fruit-flavoured dessert set with gelatine, which wobbles when moved.
2. A clear preserve made by boiling fruit juice with sugar, spread like jam: toast with redcurrant jelly.
3. A savoury dish set with gelatine or a gelatinous stock; aspic: eels in jelly.
4. Any substance with the soft, elastic consistency of jelly.
5. (informal) A jellyfish.
6. A gel used as a lubricant or contraceptive.

Verb

1. To set or cause to set as jelly; to congeal: The stock had jellied overnight.
2. To set food in jelly, as in jellied eels.

Word family

• jellylike
• jellify
• jellyfish
• comb jelly
• jelly bean
• royal jelly
• jelly doughnut
• jelly fungus

Related words

• gel
• gelatin
• congeal
• cold
• gelid

Usage notes

Collins notes that the dessert is sold in the United States and Canada under the trademark Jell-O.^[15] Two unrelated adjectives share the spelling: a Scots jelly meaning "fine, worthy, agreeable", recorded from 1568 and apparently a form of jolly,^[2][6][16] and the slang jelly, "jealous", formed from the first syllable of jealous and recorded from 1906.^[2][17]

References

1. ^ 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 t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com