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You are here: Home / Language / How Did Candy Get its Name, Where Did it Originate, and What Does the Word Candy Mean?

How Did Candy Get its Name, Where Did it Originate, and What Does the Word Candy Mean?

June 20, 2020 by Karen Hill

The sweetness in candy and sugar was called saccharon by the Greeks and saccharum by the Romans, so it’s clear where we get the word saccharine.

After conquering most of the southern Mediterranean around 1000 AD, the Arabs built the first sugar refinery on the Isle of Crete, which they had renamed quandi, meaning “crystallized sugar.”

In English, quandi became candy.

Caramel was also invented by the Arabs.

They called it kurat al milh, meaning, “ball of sweet salt.”

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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