caramel

Meanings

Noun

• A smooth, chewy, sticky confection made by heating sugar and other ingredients until the sugars polymerize and become sticky.
• A (sometimes hardened) piece of this confection.
• A yellow-brown color, like that of caramel.

Adjective

• Of a yellow-brown color.

Verb

• To caramelize.

Origin

• Borrowed from French caramel, from Spanish caramelo, from Portuguese caramelo, dissimilated from Late Latin calamellus, diminutive of calamus (and therefore a chalumeau, and shawm), from Ancient Greek κᾰ́λᾰμος, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱolh₂mos. Alternatively from Medieval Latin cannamellis, which is either a compound of canna + mellis.