Definition
nounSucrose in the form of small crystals, obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet and used to sweeten food and drink.
nounA food consisting of small, sweet crystals, principally of sucrose, obtained from sugar cane or sugar beet and used as sweetener and preservative.
Sentence Examples
Sugar replaced honey as a sweetener.
One lump of sugar, please.
She prefers to drink her morning coffee without adding any sugar.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *ḱorkeh₂
Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćárkaraH
Proto-Indo-Aryan *śárkaraH
Sanskrit शर्क॑रा (śárkarā)
Gandhari 𐨭𐨐𐨪 (śakara)bor.
Middle Persian 𐭱𐭪𐭥 (šakar)bor.
Arabic سُكَّر (sukkar)bor.
Old Italian zuccherobor.
Old French çucrebor.
Middle English sugre
English sugar
Inherited from Middle English sugre, borrowed from Old French çucre, borrowed from Old Italian zucchero, borrowed from Arabic سُكَّر (sukkar), borrowed from Middle Persian 𐭱𐭪𐭥 (šakar), borrowed from Gandhari 𐨭𐨐𐨪 (śakara), from Sanskrit शर्क॑रा (śárkarā), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *śárkaraH, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ćárkaraH, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱorkeh₂ (“gravel”). Akin to Ancient Greek κρόκη (krókē, “pebble”), whence the words crocodile and krokodil are derived. Doublet of jaggery and sucro-.
The verb is from Middle English sugren, from the noun.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"To a pound of gooseberries take a pound and a half of double-refined sugar. Clarify the sugar with water, a pint to a pound of sugar, and when the syrup is cold, put the gooseberries single in your preserving pan, put the syrup to them, and set them on a gentle fire."
— 1792, Francis Collingwood, The universal cook: and city and country housekeeper:
"There appears to be no prospect of success in attempting to combat the crisis by international arrangement, and any improvement in sugar prices can only be looked for from a diminution of the production, either as a consequence of deficient crops, or of a reduction in manufacture."
— 1895 April 1, “The Present Crisis”, in The Sugar Cane, volume 27, number 309, page 171:
"Even in extreme cases such as chemical pollution in the Florida Everglades from heavily subsidized sugar farming, strong regulations are routinely blocked by industry."
— 2013, Robert Paarlberg, Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know?:
"The experience of sugar planters in Louisiana this year in holding their sugars in warehouse for future sales at better prices has revealed again, as it has done heretofore, the fact that the presence of moisture in the sugars is inimical to their maintaining their standard of quality"
— 1915 September 18, “Drying Sugars Essential to Their Preservation”, in The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, volume 55:
"At the end of the second week there were less reducing sugars in the unpruned plants than in the previous week, but those in the pruned plants were the same."
— 1942, James E. Kraus, Effects of partial defoliation at transplanting time on subsequent: