The official designation of Turkish delight is now Greek. A confectioner on Cyprus has stolen a marchpain by registering its Greek name of loukoumi under the European Union trademark protection Act. This subverts the legend and etymology of the sweet, which are lost in the kitchens of the 17th century.

It is said that a Turkish pastry cook invented the gluey sweetmeat for a sultan with toothache, who could not bite for toffee. It reminded the sultan of the quivering thighs of his odalisques. The confection is popular among Mediterraneans with a sweet tooth. Its Turkish name, lokum, may come from the Ottoman rahat hulkum, “contentment of the throat”. Romanians call it “rahat”; Serbs “ratluk”. When a traveller brought it back to England, it was originally called “lumps of delight”.

There is no necessary connection between a national designation and the food attributed to it. Scots do not like Scotch eggs. They were invented for English picnics by a London grocer. The English don't have English muffins. Welsh rabbit is an insult. The mis-spelling “rarebit” is later etymological pomposity. The French do not have French toast — their pain perdu is a different kettle of fish. Danish pastries come from Vienna, and may well be derived from Turkish baklava. And the Greeks claim that Turkish coffee was a misappropriation of the hot, sweet, sedimentary Greek coffee under the Ottomans.

A rosewater sweet by any other name would taste as sweet. But when biting into Cypriot or Turkish delight, beware of breaking a tooth on the political nuts concealed beneath the sugar.