A sweet candy or flavoring made from butter and brown sugar cooked together until golden and hard, with a rich, caramel-like taste.
From 'butter' and 'scotch' (to cut or score). The candy gets its name from the way it's scored or cut into pieces after cooling and hardening.
Despite the name, butterscotch isn't from Scotland—it was invented in Britain in the 1800s! The word 'scotch' just means to cut or score, which is what confectioners did to divide the cooling candy into individual pieces.
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