means A sweet crystalline carbohydrate, usually sucrose, used to sweeten food and drink — and the broad family of related compounds the body burns for energy.

from A well-traveled word. It rides into English from Old French 'sucre,' which took it from Medieval Latin 'succarum,' itself borrowed from Arabic 'sukkar.' The Arabic, in turn, traces back to Persian 'shakar' and ultimately to Sanskrit 'śarkarā' — originally meaning 'grit' or 'gravel,' a nod to the gritty granules of the stuff. So the word followed the actual trade route of sugar itself, from the cane fields of India westward across centuries of merchants' tongues.