syrup

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French sirop,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} also taken from siropus or sirupus,^[5][6][7][8] and ultimately from Arabic شَرَاب (šarāb, “a drink, beverage, wine, syrup”),^[2][3][7][9] from شَرِبَ (šariba, “to drink”).^{[3][7][9][10]} Barnhart thinks it may also have come through siroppo.^[4] The Arabic word is also the source of sherbet and of shrub, a fruit cordial.^[6][9][11] The Anglo-Norman word, recorded from the second quarter of the 13th century, meant syrup or a liquid medicine.^[12] Etymonline notes the Spanish forms jarabe and jarope, also from Arabic.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thick sweet liquid used in cookery: 1392–3, in the household accounts of the Earl of Derby;^[2] as a liquid medicine or a sweet vehicle for medicines, 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomew's De Proprietatibus Rerum.^[2][9] Etymonline dates the form sirup to the late 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Weekley observed that the word first meant a medicinal potion and later developed like treacle, which also passed from medicine to sweetness.^[11] Ayto explains that, since Arab drinks were heavily sweetened, the word reached the West with the specific sense of a sweet liquid.^[10] From 1599 it was used for molasses and for liquids at different stages of sugar-making,^[2] and, from 1838, for any liquid as thick as syrup.^[2] The figurative sense, something cloyingly sweet or sentimental, is recorded from about 1533.^[2][13] In slang it has meant alcoholic drink (1903) and, in the United States, money (1919).^[14] British rhyming slang used syrup of figs for a wig, shortened to syrup.^[15][13] The verb, to cover or fill with syrup, dates from 1627.^[2]

Timeline

• 1392–3 – a sweet liquid used in cookery.^[2]
• 1398 – a medicinal syrup.^[2][9]
• a1533 – figurative use.^[2]
• 1599 – molasses; liquids in sugar-making.^[2]
• 1627 – verb, to cover or fill with syrup.^[2]
• 1707 – syrupy.^[4]
• 1838 – any liquid of syrupy consistency.^[2]
• 1903 – (slang) alcoholic drink.^[14]
• 1919 – (US slang) money.^[14]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A thick, sweet liquid made by dissolving sugar in water, often flavoured with fruit juice: peaches tinned in light syrup.
2. Any thick sweet liquid made for table or cooking use, as from molasses or the sap of a tree: maple syrup.
3. A liquid medicine in a sugar solution: cough syrup.
4. (informal) Excessive sentimentality.
5. (British slang) A wig.

Verb

1. To cover, fill or sweeten with syrup, as fruit in canning.
2. To bring to the consistency of syrup.

Word family

• syrupy
• golden syrup
• maple syrup
• simple syrup
• corn syrup
• cough syrup

Related words

• sherbet
• shrub
• sorbet
• treacle
• molasses

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press