The English word
SUGAR comes to English via French
sucre and medieval Latin
succarum (
zuccarum; via the medieval Latin variant
saccharum we get the English word "saccharine"). These words came to Europe via Arabic
sukkar. It seems fairly certain that this Arabic word comes from Persian
shakar, which is in turn from Sanskrit
sharkara, meaning "rock-candy sugar" (originally just "rock, grit, gravel").
The English word
JAGGERY, referring to a dark brown sugar made in India from palm sap, comes via Portuguese
jagara from Kannada
sharkare, which in turns comes from Sanskrit
sharkara, the same word that also led to English "sugar."
The image below shows
different kinds of sugar: (clockwise from top left) white refined sugar, unrefined sugar, brown sugar and unprocessed cane sugar.
