Talk:blackstrap

Etymology

Because of a houseguest from Lancaster County, I have received a hospitality gift of some 'stroopies.' This term arises from the Dutch (not Pennsylvania Dutch/Deutsche) word for 'syrup'. Since the Dutch West Indies is an area in which I am guessing that muxh sugar has long been grown and refined, does it make sense that the term 'blackstrap' molasses is from the Dutch word 'stroop' for the very dark syrup remaining after sugar processing? Littleglassworld (talk) 03:21, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

The OED more or less agrees with you, saying it's "apparently a borrowing from Dutch, combined with English elements ... the semantic motivation [for strap] is unclear. The second element may perhaps show an alteration of Dutch stroop syrup, treacle ..." Equinox ◑ 07:54, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

There are a good number of attestations of "blackstrop" as early as 1842: https://archive.org/search.php?query=blackstrop&sin=TXT

English "strop" itself exists as a variation on "strap" so this would not rule out "strap". "swartstroop" exists in Afrikaans (possibly by reanalysis), and "zwarte stroop" seems uncommon in Dutch. 45.72.230.178 18:32, 7 July 2022 (UTC)