Named after Latin for honey — and once so important to colonial trade that a molasses flood devastated a Boston neighborhood in 1919.
A thick, dark brown syrup produced during the refining of sugar, or any thick, sweet syrup.
From Portuguese melaço, from Late Latin mellaceum meaning must (new wine), from Latin mel meaning honey Key roots: *melit- (Proto-Indo-European: "honey").
The Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 remains one of the strangest industrial disasters in history: a storage tank burst, sending a 25-foot wave of molasses through the streets at 35 mph, killing 21 people. Residents claimed the neighborhood smelled of molasses on hot days for decades afterward.