açúcar

Forms

açúcar m (countable and uncountable, plural açúcares)^[1] Houaiss records açucar in the 14th century, acucar, açuqar and açuquer in the 15th, açucre before 1570 and assucar in 1873.^[2] Machado quotes açuquere from the 16th century.^[3] Figueiredo (1899) still preferred assúcar.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic سكر (súkkar, “sugar”), with the Arabic article al- fused into the word as its initial a-, the /l/ assimilated to the /s/: Corriente writes the Andalusian form with the article al+, Houaiss and Machado the Arabic with as-.^[5][2][3] The Andalusian word is from Arabic سُكَّر (sukkar).^[5][1] The same Arabic word is Spanish azúcar and, outside Ibero-Romance, Italian zucchero.^[5][3]

Corriente takes it from Middle Persian šakar, from Pali sakkharā, from Sanskrit शर्करा (śárkarā).^[5] Wiktionary gives the same chain with a Gandhari step between Sanskrit and Middle Persian.^[1] The Sanskrit word meant “coarse sand, gravel, grit”.^[2][6] Dalgado has the Prakrit forms give the Persian word, and the Greek σάκχαρον (sákkharon) and Latin saccharum beside the Arabic, which he calls the immediate source of the European words;^[6][2][3] Machado instead derives the Arabic word from the Greek one.^[6][2][3] Wiktionary takes the Sanskrit word back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱorkeh₂ (“gravel”).^[1] Nascentes remarks that the Arabs brought sugar to the West.^[7]

The Sanskrit word reached Portuguese a second time, through Malayalam, as jágara.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Machado's first record is a document of 1339, in a list of spices: se leuar ou trouuer pimenta ou açafram ou açúcar ou outra espeçiaria qualquer “if he takes or brings pepper or saffron or sugar or any other spice”.^[3] Cunha and Houaiss date the word to the 14th century.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

Cunha dates açucareiro to the 15th century as the official in charge of the sugar stores, and to the 16th as the sugar bowl.^[8] Morais (1789) describes the kinds of sugar made from the boiled juice of the canes, mascavado (dark and unrefined), redondo and candi (crystallised).^[9] Dalgado traces cande in açúcar cande to a Sanskrit word through Persian and Arabic.^[6]

Chemistry later gave the word the general sense of any sweet, soluble carbohydrate.^[2][10] The figurative senses are sweetness and gentleness, and flattery or smooth talk.^[2][11] In Brazil Houaiss records açúcar as the name of a dance and song of African origin on the sugar plantations.^[2]

Wiktionary lists its descendants in the Língua Geral Amazônica and Nheengatu (asukirí), in Kaingang and other indigenous languages of Brazil, and in Papiamentu (suku).^[1]

Timeline

• 1339 – first record, in a list of spices.^[3]
• 1400s – açucareiro “keeper of the sugar”; the spellings açuqar and açuquer.^[8][2]
• 1562 – Cardoso's dictionary has açaquarado “sugared”.^[8]
• before 1570 – the form açucre.^[2]
• 1789 – Morais lists the kinds of sugar of the mills.^[9]
• 1873 – the spelling assucar.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. sugar, the sweet, soluble substance made mainly from sugar cane (cana-de-açúcar) and sugar beet: Põe pouco açúcar no café.^[2][12][1]
2. (chemistry) Any of the simple, sweet carbohydrates, such as sucrose, glucose and fructose.^[2][1]
3. (by extension) Sugar cane, as a crop.^[2][12]
4. A sweet substance of plant and animal metabolism, in fruit, honey and the blood.^[2]
5. (figurative) Sweetness, gentleness.^[2][13]
6. (figurative, informal) Smooth talk meant to deceive; flattery.^[2][11]
7. (Brazil) A dance or song of African origin on the sugar plantations.^[2]

Word family

• açucarado
• açucarar
• açucareiro
• açúcar-cande
• cana-de-açúcar

Related words

• sacarose
• jágara
• Spanish azúcar
• Arabic سُكَّر (sukkar)

Usage notes

For the dance Houaiss also records the form açucre.^[2] The kinds of sugar have set names: açúcar mascavo or mascavado for brown unrefined sugar, açúcar cristal for granulated, açúcar de confeiteiro for icing sugar.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. açúcar
3. ^ a b c d e f g Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. açúcar
4. ^ Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 24
5. ^ a b c d Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. açúcar
6. ^ a b c d e Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 9
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. açúcar
8. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. açúcar
9. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 1, 24
10. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. açúcar
11. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. açúcar
12. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. açúcar
13. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 224