toffee

Etymology

It is from English an alteration of taffy,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} recorded earlier in the north of England and in Scotland.^[8][9][6] The early spellings tuffy and toughy suggest that it was named for its toughness,^[8][9][10] but Ayto thinks this probably a later folk-etymological rationalization.^[11] Taffy itself is of unknown origin.^{[3][6][11][7]} Weekley asked whether it is connected with tafia, a rum-like spirit made from molasses,^[12] a guess that Ayto and Barnhart also mention.^[11][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A firm or hard sweet that softens when sucked or chewed, made by boiling sugar or treacle with butter: before 1825, in Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia (1830).^[8][9] Etymonline dates it to 1825, as tuffy or toughy, a southern British dialect variant of taffy,^[10][13] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1825;^[3] the spelling toffee is recorded by 1843 according to Etymonline.^[10] Barnhart's first record of it is from 1862, in Dickens's letters.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Taffy is recorded from 1817 in a Cheshire glossary,^[8] and survives in American English, while Britain uses toffee.^[11] In the north of England toffee-making was a social occasion: in Cumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire a toffee-join was a gathering of young people who each paid a few pence for the treacle and sugar, and to join for toffee was to club together to make it; in the Isle of Man the tiller of a boat was figuratively a taffy-stick.^[14] The colloquial not able to do something for toffee, to be quite incompetent at it, is recorded from 1886.^[8][5] In slang toffee has meant nonsense or flattery, from 1901 in Australia,^[15] and the OED records "nonsense, rubbish" from before 1930, in D. H. Lawrence.^[8] A single wrapped piece of the sweet is a toffee from 1938, in Graham Greene's Brighton Rock,^[8] and the colour name, a medium brown, from 1960.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1825 – a hard or firm sweet made by boiling sugar or treacle with butter, also as tuffy, toughy.^[8][9][10]
• 1843 – the spelling toffee.^[10]
• 1886 – not able to do something for toffee, to be incompetent at it.^[8]
• 1901 – slang, nonsense or flattery.^[15]
• 1938 – a single small piece of toffee.^[8]
• 1960 – a medium shade of brown; as an adjective from 1962.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hard or chewy sweet made by boiling sugar or treacle with butter, often with nuts or flavourings added.^[5][3][8]
2. (chiefly British) A single piece of this sweet: She unwrapped a toffee on the bus.^[3][8]
3. for toffee (informal): at all, after a negative: He can't dance for toffee.^[5][8]
4. (slang) nonsense or flattery.^[15][8]
5. A medium shade of brown.^[8]

Adjective

1. Of a medium brown colour.^[8]

Word family

• toffee-nosed

Related words

• taffy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com