"sugar" in seven languages
Meaningsugar
Spanish
/aˈθukaɾ/
masc.borrowed · Andalusian Arabic as-sukkar
Usually masculine, but feminine with some adjectives: azúcar morena.
French
/sykʁ/
masc.borrowed · Italian zucchero
Italian
/ˈtsukkero/
masc.borrowed · Arabic sukkar
lo zucchero
Portuguese
/aˈsukah/
masc.borrowed · Andalusian Arabic as-sukkar
Romanian
/ˈzahər/
neut.borrowed · Greek záchari (cf. Bulgarian zahar)
Catalan
/ˈsukɾə/
masc.borrowed · Arabic sukkar
English
/ˈʃʊgɚ/
from Latin/French · Old French sucre (Medieval Latin succarum)
The ancestor
Arabic sukkar‘sugar (ultimately from Sanskrit śarkarā)’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Spanish swallowed the Arabic article al- (here as-) along with the noun, the hallmark of a word taken straight from Arabic in al-Andalus; Italian took the bare noun through Mediterranean trade and passed it to French.
Learn it
In a sentence
- esTomo el café sin azúcar.
- frJe prends mon café sans sucre.
- itPrendo il caffè senza zucchero.
- ptTomo café sem açúcar.
- roBeau cafeaua fără zahăr.
- caPrenc el cafè sense sucre.
- enI take my coffee without sugar.