the.com/cottoncandy
spun sugar so flimsy it's basically a sweet that surrenders the moment you touch it
means A confection of sugar heated and spun into fine threads, gathered into a fluffy cloud usually wound around a paper cone or stick.
from An American name from the early 20th century, describing the way the spun-sugar fluff looks like raw cotton fresh off the boll. The machine that whips it up was patented around the turn of that century, and other English-speakers landed on their own images for the same airy stuff — the British call it 'candy floss,' the Australians 'fairy floss' — but Americans reached for the cotton fields. 'Cotton' itself travels back through Old French and ultimately Arabic 'qutn,' the word that followed the plant out of the Arab world; 'candy' likewise has Arabic-and-Persian roots in 'qand,' crystallized sugar.
- invented by
- a dentist co-created it in 1897
- single ingredient
- just sugar, spun into airborne threads
- original name
- sold as fairy floss for decades
- melts instantly
- dissolves on contact with your tongue or rain
- thread width
- strands thinner than a human hair
coney island boardwalk — iconic nyc amusement destination where cotton candy has been sold since early 1900s
state fair of texas — dallas fair serving cotton candy since 1886, one of america's largest state fairs
disney parks worldwide — signature snack sold at disney theme parks globally since disneyland opened 1955