Malta.
_Etymology of Molasses._--The affinity between the orthography of this word
in Italian (melássa), Spanish (melaza), and French (mélasse), and our
pronunciation of it (m_e_lasses), would seem to suggest a common origin.
How comes it, then, that we write it with an _o_ instead of an _e_? Walker
says it is derived frown the Italian "mellazzo" (_sic_); and some French
lexicographers trace their "mélasse" from [Greek: melas], with reference to
the colour; others from [Greek: meli], in allusion to the taste. But these
Greek derivations are too recondite for our early sugar manufacturers; and
the likelihood {37} is, that they found the word nearer home, in some
circumstance which had less to do with literary refinement than with the
refining of sugar.
There is an expression in French which is identical in spelling with this
word, namely, "molasse" (softish--so to speak); and which describes the
liquidity of molasses, as distinguished from the granulous substance of
which they are the residue. As our first sugar establishment was formed in
1643, in an island (St. Christopher) one half of which was then occupied by
the French, it is possible that we may have adopted the word from them; and
this conjecture is supported by the following passage in Père Labat (vol.
iii. p. 93.), where he uses the word "molasse" in the sense of _soft_, to
describe a species of sugar that had not received, or had lost, the proper
degree of consistency.
"Je vis leur sucre qui me parut très beau et bien gréné, surtout
lorsqu'il est nouvellement fait; mais on m'assura qu'il devenait
cendreux ou _molasse_, et qu'il se décuisait quand il était gardé
quelques jours."