Buttery, scotchy
Where does butterscotch come from?
The makers don’t say.
Is it a combination of butter and scotch? Is it the juice of the mature berry of Q. butterscotchicus? Folks,what the hell is it?
My WAG is it’s buttermilk either fermented or something.
You don’t have a dictionary? “A syrup, sauce, candy, or flavoring made by melting butter and brown sugar together.” A lot of variants, but brown sugar + butter is the basic idea:
http://www.recipesource.com/desserts/butterscotch-sauce1.html
In the word ‘butterscotch’ the ‘scotch’ part has nothing to do with ‘Scotch’ referring to Scottish, Scotland or Scotch whisky. It is from ‘scotched’, the Celtic version of scorched or heated.
Macbeth says “We have scotched the snake, not killed it”, referring to a murder attempt which has only partially been completed.
scotch = burnt
Hence, burnt butter.
Cite? Dictionary.com has the following:
Where does “scotch” = “burnt” anyway?