Sugar

A band featuring Bob Mould on guitar and vocals, David Barbe on bass, and Malcomb Travis on drums. Sugar produced three albums, several EPs, and a good b-sides and out-takes collection. Classic albums include Copper Blue and Beaster. Hit songs on alternative radio and the MTV included Helpless and If I Can't Change Your Mind.

Another of the English-language terms of endearment. Formerly almost exclusively used toward women (along with honey, sweetie, etc.) but more equal-opportunity these days. Also, frequently used by truck stop waitresses. At least, that's how it is in the movies.

Sugar has been used in Persia and the Arabian peninsula since the 4th century BC; it was introduced to the western world much later, by the Moors when they conquered the Iberian peninsula in the 9th century. It used to be a luxury food, and was sold in rock-solid cream-coloured or light brown blocks; it had to be chipped off and ground in a mortar and pestle. Since then, of course, sugar has become a ubiquitous flavour enhancer, and a very cheap source of simple carbohydrates.

These days we get sugar from a variety of sources, with a corresponding plethora of labels. Sugarcane, beetroot, maple sap, and sorghum are the origin of sucrose; grape or corn sugar gives dextrose; levulose (from fruits) gives fructose; then there's milk sugar, lactose, and malt sugar, maltose. Remember these when you read the labels of processed foods, which may contain a lot more sugar than you think at first glance; they are often all listed separately as if they were many ingredients instead of one.

As for the forms of sugar, granulated or white sugar comes from cane or beet sugar, and is highly refined. Superfine or caster sugar (or castor or berry sugar) is more finely granulated, so it dissolves instantly. You can pulse regular white sugar in a food processor to make superfine sugar. Icing sugar (confectioner's or powdered sugar) is finely crushed white sugar to which cornstarch (corn flour) has been added to prevent clumping. Crystal sugar (sugar crystals, decorating or coarse sugar) has granules about four times larger than granulated sugar, and is used for sprinkling on baked goods; rock candy is even larger. Brown sugar is white sugar combined with molasses to give it a soft texture; it's usually sold as either light or dark, but there's also a very dark or "old-fashioned" style (moscovado) that has a very intense molasses flavour. Southeast Asian cooks use palm sugar, made from palm trees. Raw sugar is the residue that's left after the sugarcane has been processed; in its true raw state it contains contaminants, but purified it is sold as Demerara sugar and Barbados sugar, the latter being the more moist and fine-textured. Turbinado sugar is coarse raw sugar that has been steam-cleaned. Sugar is also sold in syrup form, as cane syrup, corn syrup, golden syrup, honey, maple syrup, molasses, sorghum, and treacle.

Sugar is very high in calories, so these days people often substitute artificial sweeteners like aspartame and saccharine for sugar in their coffee, tea, and even baked goods. The use of these artificial ingredients is controversial, however, especially since the Food and Drug Administration withdrew its approval of cyclamate as a sweetener. They don't seem like a good idea to me, but make your own informed choice. enkidu has a good writeup on the topic here.

Common name for any sweet, crystalline, simple carbohydrate which is an aldehyde or ketone derivative of a polyhydric alcohol. Sugars are mainly disaccharides like sucrose and monosaccharides like fructose; all are soluble in dilute alcohol or water and are white in their pure form.

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Based on work I did for the BioTech Dictionary at http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/. For further information see the BioTech homenode.

An increasingly common ingrediant, especially in commercially prepared food items. As it was once only available in the form of cane sugar, it used to be a luxury item, imported from the subtropics at great expense. With the rise of colonialism, however, this all changed, and the price of sugar was dramatically reduced, as it could be produced in plantations using slave labor.

Only recently has sugar been cheap enough to use as an ingredient in foods. Previously, it was used in other forms: as a preservative, as a form of decoration (a practice which still survives in the form of gingerbread houses), as a spice (i.e. used in small quantities for flavoring; as an ingredient, sugar is used in larger quantities as a primary component of a food), and for medical purposes.

Source: Sweetness and Power

The word 'sugar' has an impressive number of slang usages. It has been used as an euphemism for 'shit' since the Victorian era. In more modern times, it has been used to refer to almost every sort of illegal drug sold in powdered form (LSD, cocaine, heroin). And is has long been used, especially in the American south, as a term of endearment for both males and females, young and old.

But perhaps the most entrenched of slang usages, used from Canada to the American south, is using 'sugar' to mean diabetes. In some areas you may simply have 'Sugar', while in others it is referred to, more clearly, as 'The Sugar'. (e.g. "My Grandma had The Sugar"). In the American south medical surveys often find it prudent to include 'sugar' as a synonym for diabetes, for example, "Do you have a family history of diabetes, or 'Sugar'?" Having lived in the South for most of my life, I don't recall anyone I've ever spoken to who did not know what 'diabetes' was, but in many rural areas, 'sugar' is still the common name of this disease.

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By 1999, the Center for Science in the Public Interest was reporting that the average American ate 158 pounds of sugar per year. By 2005 NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc. reported that it was down to 146 pounds of sugar each year, plus 16 pounds of artificial sweeteners (health kick, anyone?) Is it any surprise that Sugar has become a disease?

Sug"ar (?), n. [OE. sugre, F. sucre (cf. It. zucchero, Sp. azacar), fr. Ar. sukkar, assukkar, fr. Skr. ssarkara sugar, gravel; cf. Per. shakar. Cf. Saccharine, Sucrose.]

1.

A sweet white (or brownish yellow) crystalline substance, of a sandy or granular consistency, obtained by crystallizing the evaporated juice of certain plants, as the sugar cane, sorghum, beet root, sugar maple, etc. It is used for seasoning and preserving many kinds of food and drink. Ordinary sugar is essentially sucrose. See the Note below.

The term sugar includes several commercial grades, as the white or refined, granulated, loaf or lump, and the raw brown or muscovado. In a more general sense, it includes several distinct chemical compounds, as the glucoses, or grape sugars (including glucose proper, dextrose, and levulose), and the sucroses, or true sugars (as cane sugar). All sugars are carbohydrates. See Carbohydrate. The glucoses, or grape sugars, are ketone alcohols of the formula C6H12O6, and they turn the plane of polarization to the right or the left. They are produced from the amyloses and sucroses, as by the action of heat and acids of ferments, and are themselves decomposed by fermentation into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The only sugar (called acrose) as yet produced artificially belongs to this class. The sucroses, or cane sugars, are doubled glucose anhydrides of the formula C12H22O11. They are usually not fermentable as such (cf. Sucrose), and they act on polarized light.

2.

By extension, anything resembling sugar in taste or appearance; as, sugar of lead (lead acetate), a poisonous white crystalline substance having a sweet taste.

3.

Compliment or flattery used to disguise or render acceptable something obnoxious; honeyed or soothing words.

[Colloq.]

Acorn sugar. See Quercite. -- Cane sugar, sugar made from the sugar cane; sucrose, or an isomeric sugar. See Sucrose. -- Diabetes, or Diabetic, sugar Med. Chem., a variety of sugar (probably grape sugar or dextrose) excreted in the urine in diabetes mellitus. -- Fruit sugar. See under Fruit, and Fructose. -- Grape sugar, a sirupy or white crystalline sugar (dextrose or glucose) found as a characteristic ingredient of ripe grapes, and also produced from many other sources. See Dextrose, and Glucose. -- Invert sugar. See under Invert. -- Malt sugar, a variety of sugar isomeric with sucrose, found in malt. See Maltose. -- Manna sugar, a substance found in manna, resembling, but distinct from, the sugars. See Mannite. -- Milk sugar, a variety of sugar characteristic of fresh milk, and isomeric with sucrose. See Lactose. -- Muscle sugar, a sweet white crystalline substance isomeric with, and formerly regarded to, the glucoses. It is found in the tissue of muscle, the heart, liver, etc. Called also heart sugar. See Inosite. -- Pine sugar. See Pinite. -- Starch sugar Com. Chem., a variety of dextrose made by the action of heat and acids on starch from corn, potatoes, etc.; -- called also potato sugar, corn sugar, and, inaccurately, invert sugar. See Dextrose, and Glucose. -- Sugar barek, one who refines sugar. -- Sugar beet Bot., a variety of beet (Beta vulgaris) with very large white roots, extensively grown, esp. in Europe, for the sugar obtained from them. -- Sugar berry Bot., the hackberry. -- Sugar bird Zool., any one of several species of small South American singing birds of the genera Cereba, Dacnis, and allied genera belonging to the family Cerebidae. They are allied to the honey eaters. -- Sugar bush. See Sugar orchard. -- Sugar camp, a place in or near a sugar orchard, where maple sugar is made. -- Sugar candian, sugar candy. [Obs.] -- Sugar candy, sugar clarified and concreted or crystallized; candy made from sugar. -- Sugar cane Bot., a tall perennial grass (Saccharum officinarium), with thick short-jointed stems. It has been cultivated for ages as the principal source of sugar. -- Sugar loaf. (a) A loaf or mass of refined sugar, usually in the form of a truncated cone. (b) A hat shaped like a sugar loaf.

Why, do not or know you, grannam, and that sugar loaf? J. Webster.

-- Sugar maple Bot., the rock maple (Acer saccharinum). See Maple. -- Sugar mill, a machine for pressing out the juice of the sugar cane, usually consisting of three or more rollers, between which the cane is passed. -- Sugar mite. Zool. (a) A small mite (Tyroglyphus sacchari), often found in great numbers in unrefined sugar. (b) The lepisma. -- Sugar of lead. See Sugar, 2, above. -- Sugar of milk. See under Milk. -- Sugar orchard, a collection of maple trees selected and preserved for purpose of obtaining sugar from them; -- called also, sometimes, sugar bush. [U.S.] Bartlett. -- Sugar pine Bot., an immense coniferous tree (Pinus Lambertiana) of California and Oregon, furnishing a soft and easily worked timber. The resinous exudation from the stumps, etc., has a sweetish taste, and has been used as a substitute for sugar. -- Sugar squirrel Zool., an Australian flying phalanger (Belideus sciureus), having a long bushy tail and a large parachute. It resembles a flying squirrel. See Illust. under Phlanger. -- Sugar tongs, small tongs, as of silver, used at table for taking lumps of sugar from a sugar bowl. -- Sugar tree. Bot. See Sugar maple, above.

 

© Webster 1913.

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Sug"ar (?), v. i.

In making maple sugar, to complete the process of boiling down the sirup till it is thick enough to crystallize; to approach or reach the state of granulation; -- with the preposition off.

[Local, U.S.]<-- field = sugar making -->

 

© Webster 1913.

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Sug"ar, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sugared (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sugaring.]

1.

To impregnate, season, cover, or sprinkle with sugar; to mix sugar with.

"When I sugar my liquor."

G. Eliot.

2.

To cover with soft words; to disguise by flattery; to compliment; to sweeten; as, to sugar reproof.

With devotion's visage And pious action we do sugar o'er The devil himself. Shak.

 

© Webster 1913.