Other forms: candies
Candy is small sugary colourful treats. A bag of candy, candy floss, candy cane.
It is the American word for what Britain calls sweets, and one of the sharpest of the everyday transatlantic splits. British English keeps candy in compounds — candy floss, candyfloss, candy stripe — and in candied fruit. The word came a long way: from Sanskrit through Persian and Arabic into French, meaning crystallised sugar. Note eye candy; and candy cane, which is American.
1nouncandySmall sugary treats, in American use.
“The kids came home from trick-or-treating with bags full of candy.”
candy is a sweet food.
Also accepted in games: sweets, sweet
Old French sucre candi came from Arabic qandi, from Persian, ultimately from Sanskrit khanda, a piece or fragment of crystallised sugar. The word travelled with the sugar itself.
Arabic
سُكَّر قَنْدِي
Old French
sucre candi
Middle English
sugre candy
English, today
candy
Built from
From Middle English sugre candy, from Old French sucre candi literally “candied sugar”, from Arabic سُكَّر قَنْدِي, from Arabic قَنْد (“rock candy”), from Persian کند from Sanskrit खण्ड (“piece, fragment, candied sugar, dried molasses”), root खण्ड् (“to divide, break into pieces”), or from dra-pro kaṇṭu; compare Tamil கண்டு (“hard candy”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA