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caramelo

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word caramelo

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1594 Juan Cornejo, Discurso y despertador preservativo de enfermedades More words from the 16th century
Borrowed from
Portuguese caramelo
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κάλαμος

Pronunciation

  • /kaɾaˈmelo/, [ka.ɾaˈme.lo][1]

Forms

caramelo m (plural caramelos)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Portuguese caramelo, which meant “icicle” as well as “caramel”.[2][3][4][1] The Portuguese word continues Late Latin calamellus (“little reed”), a diminutive of calamus (“reed”) with the suffix -ellus.[2][1][5] The Latin noun was itself borrowed from Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos, “reed”).[1] The sense “icicle” is attested in Portuguese in the 16th century; the hardened syrup was compared with an icicle, which looks just the same.[2] Gonçalves Viana proposed this etymology, and Krüger reached the same conclusion.[2]

Corominas compares the use of other derivatives of the Latin noun for an icicle, as in carámbano; the crossed forms Asturian carambelu and Aragonese carambelo also mean “caramel”.[2] Baist derived the word from an Occitan form equivalent to cañamiel “sugar cane”, and Meyer-Lübke and Wartburg traced it to cannamellis (“honey cane, sugar cane”);[2] Corominas rejects this because the word is a recent loan from Castilian in Occitan and Catalan.[2] García de Diego accepts the Latin diminutive but allows the influence of the compound.[6]

Spanish has the inherited doublet caramillo “reed pipe”, and churumbela, a loan from Middle French.[1] From Spanish the word passed to French caramel (1680) and Italian caramello, and through French to English caramel (1725).[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first reliable hit in the CDH is Juan Cornejo's medical Discurso of 1594, where the word names a remedy for the chest: dan xaraues, caramelos y lamedores “they give syrups, caramels and linctuses”.[8] The BDELC dates caramelo to 1601 and Covarrubias's caramel to 1611; the DCECH's first caramelo is of 1642, in an edition of 1680.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In 1617 Francisco Cascales listed it among the words Spanish had from Portugal: De Portugal tenemos porcelana, mermelada, caramelos “From Portugal we have porcelain, marmalade, caramels”.[8] Covarrubias wrote caramel and took it from an Arabic word meaning “gift”, as Autoridades reports;[9][2] Corominas explains caramel as an adaptation of the rare ending -elo to the common -el.[9][2] Covarrubias also used caramel for a small sardine of Cartagena, probably from its long shape.[2]

The Diccionario de Autoridades still defined caramel as a paste of sugar candy with sweet almond oil, taken to soothe the chest, and quotes a price list of 1680.[9] The 1884 Academy dictionary described it as sugar boiled to a syrup that hardens without crystallising, made in lozenges flavoured with essences.[10] Today it also names a pleasant or tempting thing and a light brown colour.[4] Colloquially in the Caribbean it is an attractive person or an easy matter.[11][12]

Timeline

  • 1594 – Juan Cornejo lists caramelos among chest remedies.[8]
  • 1601 – the BDELC's first record.[3]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias has the form caramel.[2][3]
  • 1617 – Cascales counts caramelos among the words taken from Portugal.[8]
  • 1642 – the DCECH's first record of caramelo (in an edition of 1680).[2]
  • 1680 – first record of French caramel, taken from Spanish.[2]
  • 1725 – the English word caramel “burnt sugar”, through French.[7]
  • 1729 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as a sugar paste that soothes the chest.[9]
  • 1779 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.[13]
  • 1899 – the Academy's first etymology, from Late Latin calamellus.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. caramel: sugar melted and then hardened.[4][1]
  2. A sweet or candy made with caramel and flavoured with fruit, herbs and the like: Me dio un caramelo de limón.[4][1]
  3. A person or thing that is pleasant, tempting or hard to refuse.[4]
  4. (Philippines) An azucarillo, a spongy sugar sweet.[4]
  5. (Caribbean, colloquial) An attractive person; an easy thing.[11][12]

Adjective

  1. Of a caramel colour, light brown (also a noun, the colour).[4][15]

Word family

  • acaramelar
  • caramillo
  • carámbano
  • churumbela
  • Late Latin calamellus
  • Portuguese caramelo
  • French caramel

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 851
  3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caramelo
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. caramelo
  5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. calamellus
  6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 1362
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. caramelo
  9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 161
  10. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 210
  11. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. caramelo
  12. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. caramelo
  13. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. caramelo
  14. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 195
  15. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. caramelo

Related etymologies

  • junco · also from Portuguese
  • vera · also from Portuguese
  • coco · also from Portuguese
  • banana · also from Portuguese
  • volcán · also from Portuguese
  • mango · also from Portuguese
  • criollo · also from Portuguese
  • lancha · also from Portuguese
Cite this entry

“Caramelo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/caramelo. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·