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car·a·mel

(kărə-məl, -mĕl′, kärməl)

1. A smooth chewy candy made with sugar, butter, cream or milk, and flavoring.

2. Burnt sugar, used for coloring and sweetening foods.

3. A moderate yellow brown.

[French, from Old French, from Old Spanish caramel, caramelo, from Portuguese caramel, from Late Latin calamellus, diminutive of Latin calamus, reed, cane, from Greek kalamos.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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