caramelo

Forms

caramelo m (plural caramelos)^[1] Cunha records the 16th-century spelling caramello.^[2] Dialects of Portugal also say caremelo, cramelo and queramelo for the ice on puddles.^[3]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Late Latin calamellus (“small reed”), a diminutive of Latin calamus (“reed”).^[4][2][5] The Latin noun was itself borrowed from Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos, “reed”).^[6][1] The first /l/ became /r/ by dissimilation from the second.^[7][8] The name is thought to have passed from the reed to the icicle and then to sugar boiled until it hardens, because of the likeness of shape between the three.^[9][5]

Houaiss calls the origin controversial.^[4] Wiktionary gives as an alternative Medieval Latin cannamellis (“honey cane”), from canna (“reed”) and mel (“honey”).^[1] García de Diego keeps the diminutive of the Latin word for “reed” but allows for the influence of the Medieval Latin “honey cane”.^[10] Vieira in 1871 derived the word from Arabic, an explanation no later source repeats.^[11]

According to Corominas and the DLE, Spanish caramelo (1601) was taken from Portuguese, and French caramel (1680) and Italian caramello came from the Spanish word.^{[5][12][13][9]} The Academia's dictionary and Figueiredo take the opposite view and derive the Portuguese word from Spanish.^[14][15] The same diminutive is Spanish caramillo (“reed pipe”), Catalan caramella and French chalumeau.^[16][17] The form Galician carambelo means a sheet of ice on still water.^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest sense is “frozen snow, ice”: Corominas cites a 16th-century record by the friar António Pinheiro, taken from Morais, and Sá de Miranda's line tens as mãos frias como um caramelo “your hands are as cold as a caramelo”.^[5] The 16th-century dictionaries translate it with Latin words for frost and ice.^[19]

Semantic evolution

Cardoso, Barbosa and Pereira gloss the word only with Latin gelu “frost” and glacies “ice”.^[19][20][21] Morais in 1789 adds a sweet of refined, porous sugar that is dissolved in water.^[22] Corominas explains the step by the likeness of hardened syrup to an icicle.^[5] The original Caldas Aulete still lists ice first and calls the sugar sense a Castilianism, though a very common one in Brazil.^[23]

Today the sugar senses come first in the dictionaries, and the colour of burnt sugar gave an adjective.^[4][14] The sense “ice” lives on in Portugal and in the dialects, which also use it for frost on eaves and for ice in wells.^[4][3] In Portugal the word is also an informal name for a fellow whose name is left out, and in Brazil for a mongrel dog with a short caramel-coloured coat.^[24][1]

Timeline

• 16th century – Cunha's date for the word, spelt caramelo and caramello.^[2]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary glosses caramelo with Latin gelu “frost”.^[19]
• 1593 – Houaiss's first date for the word.^[4]
• 1601 – first record of the Spanish word, which Corominas takes from Portuguese.^[12]
• 1611 – Barbosa glosses it as frost and ice.^[20]
• 1680 – French caramel first recorded, through Spanish.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais has both frozen snow and a sweet of refined sugar.^[22]
• 1871 – Vieira proposes an Arabic origin.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo calls it a Castilian term.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly Portugal) Frozen snow in flakes; ice, frozen water.^[4][7][25]
2. caramel: sugar heated until it melts and browns, used as a colouring or as a syrup over desserts such as pudim.^[4][7]
3. A sweet made of caramel; a toffee, and by extension any sweet: Trouxe caramelos de leite para as crianças.^[4][7][1]
4. The yellowish-brown colour of caramel.^[4][1]
5. (botany) The balsam pear (Momordica charantia), a climbing plant of the gourd family.^[26][25]
6. (Portugal, informal) A fellow, a person whose name is not given.^[24][25]
7. (Portugal, regional) A farm labourer from the district of Coimbra who went to work in the Alentejo.^[24][14]
8. (Brazil, colloquial) A mongrel dog with a short caramel-coloured coat.^[1][27]

Adjective

1. Of the colour of caramel.^[14][1]

Word family

• encaramelar
• acaramelar

Related words

• caramelado
• caramelar
• caramelização
• caramelizar
• charamela
• Latin calamus
• Spanish caramillo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. caramelo
3. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. caramelo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. caramelo
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 851
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. calamus
7. ^ a b c d Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. caramelo
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 97
9. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. caramel
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cannamellis
11. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 2, 102
12. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. caramelo
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. caramelo
15. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 250
16. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1484
17. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 853
18. ^ Estraviz, Isaac Alonso, Dicionário Estraviz, https://estraviz.org, p. s.v. carambelo
19. ^ a b c Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caramelo
20. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caramelo
21. ^ Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. caramelo
22. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 232
23. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. caramelo
24. ^ a b c Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. caramelo
25. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1788
26. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. caramelo
27. ^ Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. caramelo