Sugar

SUGAR IS A term for sucrose that occurs naturally and is commercially produced from sugar cane or sugar beet. The origin of the word appears to have come from India where the Sanskrit was sarkara. This became the Arabic al sukkar, and then Portuguese açucar, the Spanish azu'ucar, and then the Italian zucchero. The old French word zuchre later became the modern word sucre.

The derivation of the word also illustrates the origin of sugar; the production of sugar from sugar cane took place in ancient India. Soldiers from the armies of Alexander the Great tasted it, and it became more common in the Middle East; the Moors introduced it to Spain and Sicily. The Crusaders also brought back sugar to Europe where it remained a ...