molasses

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Portuguese melaços, the plural of melaço,^[2][3] or Spanish melazos, plural of melazo;^[2] most dictionaries give the Portuguese word.^{[4][3][5][6][7][8][9]} The OED notes that the Portuguese plural is first recorded only in the 18th century, and the Spanish in 1730.^[2] Both are cognate with Italian melazzo (1567), from Late Latin mellāceum (“must, new wine”),^[2][3][5][7] also mellacium,^[2][9] the neuter of an unattested *mellāceus (“like honey”),^[2][4][8] from mel (“honey”) and -āceus.^[2][8] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *melit- (“honey”).^[4][3] The OED adds that feminine forms such as Spanish melaza and French mélasse (1664; in Middle French mellasse, 1588) may be the source of some English spellings,^[2] and compares the Medieval Latin melassis of a British source of 1570.^[2] The o of the first syllable, recorded from 1588, is unexplained according to Barnhart;^[5][10] the OED suggests the influence of the m and l on the weak vowel,^[2] and Weekley the influence of French mollasse (“over-soft”).^[11] Johnson had derived it from Italian.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The thick brown syrup drained from raw sugar: 1582, in Nicholas Lichefield's translation of Castanheda's history of the Portuguese in the East Indies,^[2] in Barnhart's spelling melasus.^[10][5] Hoad lists the early forms melasus, molassos and malassos.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word was taken over in the plural, probably because the syrup is made from what remains of the raw sugar after the crystals are removed, and it has kept that form;^[2][4] it is treated as a singular, except in the southern and central United States, where it is often construed as a plural.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as treacle, the scum of the juice of the sugar cane.^[12] In North America it was used from 1777 for any syrup made by boiling down vegetable or fruit juice,^[2][8] and later also for the dark syrup obtained in refining sugar, which in Britain is called treacle.^[2][13] Comparisons such as slow as molasses date from 1854,^[2] and the figurative sense of honeyed words or something very sweet from 1925, in Dreiser's An American Tragedy.^[2] The Dictionary of American Regional English records many regional pronunciations and spellings, among them lasses and molassey.^[14]

Timeline

• 1582 – the thick, uncrystallized syrup drained from raw sugar.^[2][5][8]
• 1588 – the spelling molassos.^[5]
• 1777 – in North America, a syrup made by boiling down vegetable or fruit juice.^[2]
• 1854 – in comparisons, the type of something thick or slow, as in slow as molasses.^[2]
• 1925 – figurative, something very sweet; honeyed words.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The thick, dark brown syrup separated from raw sugar during its manufacture: She added a spoonful of molasses to the gingerbread.^[8][13][2]
2. (US, Canada) The dark syrup obtained in refining sugar, called treacle in Britain.^[13][2]
3. A syrup made by boiling down sweet vegetable or fruit juice or sap.^[8][2]
4. Something very sweet or cloying, such as honeyed words.^[2]
5. slow as molasses: very slow.^[2]

Related words

• mellifluous
• mildew

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 t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ 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.
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press