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melaço

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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word melaço

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1697 Pereira's Thesouro, spelt mellaço More words from the 17th century
Ultimate origin
Latin mel
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Portuguese mel
Portuguese melaço

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /meˈla.su/[1]
  • Portugal: /mɨˈla.su/[1]

Forms

melaço m (plural melaços)[1] Pereira (1697) spells it mellaço and Bluteau meláço.[2][3]

Etymology

The Portuguese dictionaries analyse it as from Portuguese mel (“honey”) + -aço.[4][5][6][1] DELPo compares the French mélasse.[7] Etymonline instead takes it from Late Latin mellāceum (“new wine, must”), the neuter of mellāceus (“resembling honey”), from Latin mel (“honey”).[8]

The French word goes back to the plural Medieval Latin mellācea “syrupy residue left after the sugar has crystallised”, recorded from 1441 in the form mellaci.[9] In Spanish, melaza is an augmentative of miel.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates it to 1716 from Bluteau's dictionary, which only refers the reader to mel de assucar.[4][3] It is older: Pereira's Thesouro of 1697 has Mellaço and translates it by Latin saccharum liquidum “liquid sugar”.[2] English had borrowed the word as molasses in the 1580s.[8]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to the sugar trade: Folqman (1755) defines it as the blackish juice of purged sugar, and Vieira (1871–1874) equates it with mel de furo, the dregs of the syrup.[11][12] The modern dictionaries define it as the thick syrup left after the sugar has crystallised, used for spirits, cattle feed and industrial products.[4][6]

Figurative senses are “anything far too sweet” and “a gush of tender feelings”.[4][13]

The English word molasses comes from Portuguese melaço according to Etymonline;[8][1] Wiktionary gives the Portuguese plural melaços or Spanish melazos as the source.[8][1]

Timeline

  • 1580s – the English word molasses is recorded, from Portuguese.[8]
  • 1697 – Pereira's Thesouro enters Mellaço.[2]
  • 1712–1728 – Bluteau has meláço;[3][4] Houaiss's first date is 1716.[3][4]
  • 1734 – Feijó's spelling dictionary pairs melaço with melasso.[14]
  • 1789 – the modern spelling melaço.[4]
  • 1813 – Cunha's date for the word, from Morais's second edition.[15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. molasses, the thick dark syrup left after the sugar has crystallised, used for spirits, yeast and animal feed.[4][5][1]
  2. (figurative) Anything far too sweet: Esse chá está um melaço.[4][16]
  3. (figurative) A display of tender feelings; mawkishness.[4][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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. mellaço
  3. ^ a b c d Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. melaço
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. melaço
  5. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. melaço
  6. ^ a b 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. melaço
  7. ^ NEHiLP – Núcleo de Apoio à Pesquisa em Etimologia e História da Língua Portuguesa, Universidade de São Paulo, DELPo: Dicionário Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa (online database), p. s.v. melaço
  8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. molasses
  9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. mélasse
  10. ^ 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. melaza
  11. ^ Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. melaço
  12. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 4, 188
  13. ^ a b 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. melaço
  14. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. melaço
  15. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. melaço
  16. ^ 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. melaço
Cite this entry

“Melaço.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/mela%C3%A7o. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·