taffy

• toffee (see usage notes)

Probably related to tafia (“a type of rum”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtæ.fi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æfi

taffy (countable and uncountable, plural taffies)

1. (US) A soft, chewy candy made from boiled sugar, molasses, or corn syrup and butter.
2. (informal) Flattery.
   • 1881, Mark Twain, Unfinished Burlesque on Books of Etiquette:

     […] if these statistices should seem to fail to tally with the facts, in places, do not nudge your neighbor, or press your foot upon his toes, or manifest, by any other sign, your awareness that taffy is being distributed.

   • 1912, Upton Sinclair, The Machine‎^[1]:

     Cut out the taffy. Who's your friend?

3. (Mainly UK, usu. derogatory) Welsh person.
   • 30-03-2013, Rhodri Clark, quoting Louise Pierpoint, “Why there's still mileage in the name 'Taffy'”, in WalesOnline‎^[2]:

     "Some people may find Taffy a bit derogatory but a lot of people are interested in displaying that on their vehicles. That's a way they can express their Welshness. But we haven't sold any plates with combinations of 'boyo'."

• Taffy is a soft candy invented in the United States and known as chews or chewy sweets in the United Kingdom. It is not to be confused with toffee.

• “taffy”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

• Taffy (candy) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia