the.com/treacle
British for molasses, and for sentimentality so thick it should carry a diabetes warning.
means A thick, sticky syrup made from refined sugar (Britain's word for what Americans call molasses), or figuratively, cloying sweetness and sentimentality.
from Traces back through Old French triacle to Latin theriaca and Greek thēriakē — an antidote against the bite of venomous creatures (thēr being Greek for 'wild beast'). Treacle was originally a medicinal syrup, often laced with actual sugar syrup to make it palatable, and over centuries the word drifted from 'cure-all potion' to just 'the sweet sticky stuff' — molasses in Britain, and by extension, anything so sugary-sentimental it needs its own antidote.
- origin
- from Greek theriake, an antidote to venom
- texture tell
- treacle tart is basically syrup set to solid
- figurative use
- describes sickly-sweet sentiment, music, or prose
- golden cousin
- golden syrup is treacle's lighter, less bitter sibling