toffee: [19] Toffee is one of the mystery words of English. It is an alteration of an earlier taffy [19] (still current in American English), but where that came from is not known. The early 19thcentury spelling toughy suggests that it may have been derived from tough, in allusion to the sweet’s texture, but it is probably only a later folk-etymologizing rationalization. Another possibility is that it came from tafia ‘rumlike drink made from molasses’ [18], an alteration of ratafia [17], which was of West Indian Creole origin.
