treacle
pronunciation
How to pronounce treacle in British English:
UK [ˈtriːkl]
How to pronounce treacle in American English:
US [ˈtriːkl]
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- Noun:
- a pale cane syrup
- an expression that is excessively sweet and sentimental
Word Origin
- treacle
- treacle: [14] Treacle is etymologically an ‘antidote to the bite of wild animals’. The word comes via Old French triacle and Latin thēriaca from Greek thēriaké. This was short for antídotos thēriaké ‘antidote to poisonous animals’, thēriaké being a derivative of thēríon ‘wild animal, poisonous animal’, which in turn came from thér ‘wild savage’. It retained its original meaning into English, but it then gradually broadened out into ‘medicine’, and the practice of disguising the unpleasant taste of medicine with sugar syrup led in the 17th century to its application to ‘syrup’.
- treacle (n.)
- mid-14c., "medicinal compound, antidote for poison," from Old French triacle "antidote, cure for snake-bite" (c. 1200), from Vulgar Latin *triacula, from Latin theriaca, from Greek theriake (antidotos) "antidote for poisonous wild animals," from fem. of theriakos "of a wild animal," from therion "wild animal," diminutive of ther (genitive theros) "wild animal," from PIE root *ghwer- "wild" (see fierce). Sense of "molasses" is first recorded 1690s (the connection may be from the use of molasses as a laxative, or its use to disguise the bad taste of medicine); that of "anything too sweet or sentimental" is from 1771. Related: Treacly.
Example
- 1. I took another piece of bread and treacle .
- 2. The fly that sips treacle is lost in the sweet .
- 3. This is hardly the way I expected to win you back treacle .
- 4. Is there any more treacle pudding ?
- 5. Let 's have one more mini-myth , and this one 's quite weird-the treacle tsunami .