sugar = gravel
^sucre (French)
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succarum (Latin)
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sukkar (Arabic)
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shakar (Persian)
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sharkara (Sanskrit) 'gravel' or 'candied sugar'
Sugar comes from the French sucre and before that Latin succarum. Before that it was sukkar in Arabic and shakar in Persian. The Arabic word sukkar gives us the German zucker and Italian zucchero. It originates from Sanskrit sharkara where it's tied to gravel or grit because of it's texture. The ancient Greek word kroke for 'pebble' is related.
Honey was the original sweetener in Europe. Around 300 BC, Alexander the Great returned to Greece from his conquest of India with the first account of sugar cane. His Admiral Nearchos tasted the cane and noted that "Indian reeds that make honey without bees". The Arabs brought the crop to Europe around 800 when ruled Sicily and Spain. They began to cultivate sugar and within a few hundred years it became the dominant sweetener. Columbus brought cane cuttings with him on his voyage to the Americas. As the Spanish began conquer the Caribbean and South America in the 1500s, they began to grow it on large scale plantations and bring it back to Europe.
Related Words
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Translated
- sucre French
- zucchero Italian
- azúcar Spanish
- zucker German
References:
- OED
- NordZucker