In 1965, an American musical band, The Strangeloves (pretending to be Australian in order to attract publicity) had a hit song that encapsulated what was quickly becoming a global truism: I want candy. In reply to that statement, well, who doesn’t? To a varying degree, everyone has a sweet tooth, whether it be for hard sugar candies, caramel, liquorice or the all-time favourite – chocolate. Before you bite into that Cadbury’s Flake bar or pop a Rowntree’s jelly into your mouth, let’s take a second to think about where the word for that sweet indulgence comes from.
While the term candy arrived in Middle English in the late 13th century from the Old French çucre candi, literally meaning “sugar candy,” it goes back much further. Before the French combined it with the word for sugar, the Arabs called it quandi, which came from the Persian qand, which was an adaptation of the Sanskrit word khanda, meaning “a piece of sugar.” Interestingly, as one can see going back through the languages, the understanding and use of the word sugar follows the exposure to sugarcane, which, in the ancient world, was described as “reeds those produce honey without bees.”
Candy market
Though, throughout most of its history, candy has been a confectionery for the upper classes, thanks to mass production, it is now a daily indulgence which virtually anyone can afford- and afford it we do. The three largest candy companies in the world- Mars, Mondelez International (who currently own Cadbury), and Nestle- had nearly £28 billion in combined sales in 2014. Additionally, the global appetite for British sweets seems to only be growing: 2013 saw more than 150,000 tonnes of British candy exported to 143 countries, resulting in adding £1.1 billion to the UK’s economy.
The first known use of the word candy comes from around 1475, in the Liber Cure Cocorum, where it is written that, “With sugar candy, thou may hit sweet.” Logically, the first use of the word candy in its stand-alone form comes from a cookery book, Elizabeth Raffald’s 1769 The Experienced English Housekeeper, where one of her 800 recipes states that, “To a Pound of double refined Sugar put two Spoonfuls of Water, skim it well, and boil it almost to a Candy, when it is cold, drain your Plumbs out of the first Syrup, and put them in the thick Syrup.” Finally, circa 1809, we can see candy taking it’s familiar form of an everyday treat, as is suggested in John Foster’s Letters & Correspondences, when he writes of “handing round candies and cowslip wine.”
