Sugar

Today was hallowe’en, a day that now seems to be about eating sweets, or should I say candy. These days, sugar is a bit of a villain – but the word sugar itself is a well-used, unremarkable word, not much to write about. That made me realise I don’t actually know much about it, and I started wondering what its story is, and where it’s come from.

I was surprised to learn that the earliest origins of sugar are in India, starting from Sanskrit śarkarā (sharkara) meaning “ground or candied sugar,” originally “grit, gravel” (as opposed to sugarcane juice). Local Indian for sugar crystals was khanda, which is where the word candy comes from.

Sugar has been produced from sugarcane in India since ancient times. However, before the word reached us it went on quite a journey.

From Sanskrit sharkara came Persian shakar, then Arabic sukkar, Medieval Latin succarum, French sucre, before reaching England in the late 1200s as sugre.

Sugar was spread around the world by Indian sailors and travelling Buddhist monks took it to China. Crusaders brought it back from their campaigns in the Holy Land to Europe, where it was a luxury until it became more widely available in the 1700s.

Sadly, during its journey, sugar has gone from being a precious luxury seen as a valuable medicine, to an addictive, over-consumed ingredient that’s driving a global health crisis.

Sources
https://www.etymonline.com/word/sugar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sugar