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Etymological Dictionary of Arabic
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SKR سكر 
ID 397 • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√SKR 
“root” 
▪ SKR_1 ‘to shut, close, lock, bolt’ ↗sakar u (sakr).
▪ SKR_2 ‘intoxicating drink’ ↗sakar .
▪ SKR_3 ‘hendbane’ ↗saykurān .
▪ SKR_4 ‘sugar’ ↗sukkar .
▪ SKR_5 ‘cigar(ette)’ ↗sīgār

♦ Semantic value spectrum in ClassAr (acc. to BAH2008): ‘intoxicating drinks, intoxication, drowsiness, unconsciousness; blocking a gap, corking a bottle’. – It has been suggested that intoxication, along with its derivatives, are borrowings from either Gz or Aram. 
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▪ Probably no relation between SKR_1 and the rest.
▪ SKR_3 probably related to SKR_2.
▪ SKR_4 and SKR_5 are loan-words. 
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sakar‑ سكر , u (sakr) 
ID 398 • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√SKR 
vb., I 
to shut, close, lock, bolt (s.th.) (chiefly syr., leb.) – WehrCowan1979. 
▪ … 
▪ ….. 
Ass sekēru (sakāru) ‘to dam up; close, clog (a canal, a watercourse); to block (part of the body, e.g., to stop ears)’, sikkūru (sukkūru, sukīru) ‘bar, bolt (as locking device)’, Hbr sāḵar ‘to shut up, stop up’, Aram səḵar, Syr səḵar ‘to shut up, stup up, dam up’. 
▪ BDB 1906/2010: apparently kindr. with [Hbr] sgr‑ ‘to shut, close’. – Cf. Klein1987: Ug sgr‑ ‘to shut, close’, AramSyr səḡar‑ ‘to shut up, confine, seclude’, Akk sakāru‑ ‘to close’, šigaru‑ (sigaru) ‘door lock; cage’ (cad : ‘part of a lock; probably the bolt or bar’). – Cf. Ar ↗√SǦN.
▪ BDB 1906/2010: > Eg t’akar‑ ‘barrier’.
▪ Apparently not related to the theme ‘intoxicating drink, drunkenness’ (↗√SKR, ↗sakar). 
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► 
sakar سكر 
ID 399 • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√SKR 
n. 
an intoxicant; wine – WehrCowan1979. 
As ‎most other wine terms, also sakar may have entered Arabic via Syriac (Syr šiḵrā ʻdate ‎wine’). Most probably, however, it is older and goes back to a common Sem n. *šikar‑ ~ *šakar‑ ‘intoxicating/alcoholic drink’ (Kogan2011). In Q 16:67 it is still considered lawful and a generous gift given by God to man. Later in the Q, the attitude towards sakar changes. 
▪ eC7 Q 16:67 wa-min ṯamarāti ’l-naḫīli wa’l-ʔaʕnābi tattaḫiḏūna minhu sakaran wa-rizqan ḥasanan ‘And of the fruits of the date-palm, and grapes, whence ye derive strong drink and (also) good nourishment’ (Pickthal) / ‘Und (wir geben euch) von den Früchten der Palmen und Weinstöcke (zu trinken), woraus ihr euch einen Rauschtrank macht, und (außerdem) schönen Unterhalt’ (Paret). 
▪ Bergsträsser1928: (*‘intoxicating drink’) Akk šikaru, Hbr šēḵār, Syr šeḵrā, Gz sekā́r.
▪ BDB1906: cf. also Gz səkār ‘drunkenness’, sakra ‘to drink, get drunk’, sakārī ‘drunkard’.
▪ Dolgopolsky2012#2032: BHbr šēḵār, Akk šikāru, šikru ‘alcoholic drink, beer’, Syr šaḵrā (abs. šəḵar) ‘sicera (alcoholic drink other than wine, esp. a liquor made from dates or from honey)’, JudAram [Trg] šiḵrā ‘alcoholic drink’. 
▪ Jeffery1938: 172-173: »With this should be associated all the other forms ‎‎[occurring in the Qurʔān] derived therefrom and connected with drunkenness, e.g. iv, 46; xv, 15, ‎‎72; xxii, 2. – as-Suyūṭī, Itq, 321 (Mutaw, 40), tells us that some early authorities considered it ‎an Ethiopic word. It is possible that the Eth [Gz] sakra is the origin of the Ar word, but the ‎word is widely used in the Semitic languages, e.g. Akk šikaru (cf. [Hbr] ‎šāḵar ‎; [Syr] šəḵar) ‘‎beer’;1 and Grk, e.g. síkera.1 Thus while it may have come into Ar from Syr as ‎most other wine terms did, on the other hand it may be a common derivation from early Semitic ‎‎(Guidi, Della Sede, 603).«
▪ Huehnergard2002 reconstructs a Common Sem n. *šikar‑ ‘intoxicating drink’. Similarly Dolgopolsky2012#2032: Sem *šikar‑ ~ *šakar‑ ‘alcoholic drink’.
▪ On account of what he thinks are ‘cognates’ in Korean (MKor sù ͉ìr ~ sù ͉ùr, NKor su˥‑ < proto-Kor *sù ͉ìr ‘wine, alcoholic drink’), Dolgopolsky reconstructs Nostr *s̄2˅˹k˺˅R˅ (or *s̄˅Ḳ˅R˅) ‘intoxicating drink’ ([in descendant languages] ↗‘alcoholic drink’) – Dolgopolsky2012#2032.
▪ Any relation to ↗SKR‑ ‘’? 
▪ Sem (Hbr, Aram?) > Grk síkera ‘fermented liquor, strong drink’ – Dolgopolsky2012 #2032. According to Huehnergard2002, the Sem n. is, via Grk síkera, the ancestor of the Engl cider. 
► sakira, a (sakar, sukr). vb. I, to be drunk; to get drunk, become intoxicated: probably denominative.
► ʔaskara, vb. IV, to make drunk, intoxicate, inebriate : causative of I.
► tasākara, vb. VI, to pretend to be drunk : denominative..
► sukr, n., intoxication, inebriety, drunkenness : vn. I..
► sakraẗ, n.f., pl. sakarāt, inebriety, intoxication, drunkenness : | s. al-mawt agony of death..
► sakrānᵘ, adj., f. sakrā, pl. sukārā, sakārā drunk, intoxicated; a drunk: ints.adj. | s. ṭīnaẗ (colloq.) dead drunk; s. bi’l-naṣr drunk with victory.
► sikkīr, adj., drunkard, heavy drinker: ints.adj..
► muskir, n., pl. ‑āt alcoholic beverage, intoxicating liquor: nominalized PA IV. 
sukkar سُكَّر , pl. sakākirᵘ 
ID 400 • Sw – • BP 1683 • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√SKR 
n. 
sugar; pl. sakākirᵘ sweetmeats, confectionery, candies – WehrCowan1979. 
The word entered Ar either via Pers šä(k)kär (Waines, Kluge), mInd sakkharā (Vennemann) or, less specifically, from some Indo-Aryan source difficult to identify (Dolgopolsky). Ultimately it goes back to Skr śarkarā ‘grit, pebbles, gravel’.
»The origin of sugar cane and its early domestication cannot be precisely determined, but it evidently derived from the family of large Saccharum grasses which grow in India and Southeast Asia« and which produce silicious concretions in their internodes. »From India, cultivation of the plant spread westward. Clear references to cultivation in Persia belong to the period immediately following the Islamic conquest, but it was possibly known somewhat earlier; papyrus evidence indicates that sugar cane was grown in Egypt by the mid-2nd/8th century and diffusion across North Africa was steady although its entry into areas of the Iberian peninsula under Muslim domination may not have occurred until the 5th/11th century. From Crusader times, the eastern coast of the Mediterranean and later Cyprus, were important; sources of supply for Christian Europe« – Waines1997. 
▪ … 
Since the word is a loan from an Indo-Aryan source, there are no real cognates. For a possible relation of the ancestor of sukkar, Skr śarkarā ‘grit, pebbles, gravel’, with Cush words for ‘gravel, small stone, coarse sand’ as well as possible parallels within Nostr, see next paragraph. 
▪ Dolgopolsky2012#1131: Nostr *ḳär˅ (ḳa) (= *ḳärU (ḳa)?) ‘small stone’ > AfrAs: Cush: ECush: pOr {Bl.} *ḳirr‑ ‘gravel, small stone’ > Or č̣írr-ačča {Grg.} ‘coarse sand’, {Bl.} ‘small stone(s)’, Kns qírr-itta ‘small stone’, qírr-a ‘gravel’ || Kauk: GZ *ḳurḳa‑ > G ḳurḳa - ‘stone of a fruit’, Lz ḳurḳa id., ‘grain’ || IndoEur: NaIE *k̑orkā ‘gravel’ > OInd śarkarā f. ‘grit, pebbles, gravel’, OInd Ep śarkara > Pali sakkharā -, Prkr sakara ‑, Hindi sakkar ‘granulated sugar’ (an Indo-Aryan source ↗Grk sákkhar (on), NPer šä(k)kär, Ar sukkar - ‘sugar’, and the words for ‘sugar’ in the European languages [Ital zucchero, nHG Zucker, Fr sucre, NEngl sugar, Russ saxar, etc.]) ‖ Grk krókē, krokálai ‘abgerundeter Kieselstein am Meeresufer’ || Drav *kar˅c̉‑ ({ϑGS} *g‑) ‘gravel’ > Kn garasu, garusu, Tl garusu id., Tu karṅkallu id., ‘hard sand’.
▪ Unrelated to other items of the root ↗√SKR. 
▪ Pāli sakharā‑ > (Hellenistic period?) Grk sákkhar, sákkhari > Per šakar. Grk sákkharon > Lat saccharum. Ar sukkar > Ital zucchero, Fr sucre, Ge Zucker – Chantraine1977. 
► sukkar al-banǧar, n., beet sugar.
► sukkar al-ṯimār, n., fructose, levulose, fruit sugar.
► sukkar al-šaʕīr, n., maltose, malt sugar.
► sukkar al-ʕinab, n., dextro-glucose, dextrose, grape sugar.
► sukkar al-qaṣab, n., saccharose, sucrose, cane sugar.
► sukkar al-laban, n., lactose, milk sugar.
► sukkar al-nabāt, n., sugar candy, rock candy.
► qaṣab al-sukkar, n., sugar cane.
► maraḍ al-sukkar, n., diabetes (med.).

► sakkara, vb. II, to sugar, sprinkle with sugar; to candy, preserve with sugar: denominative.
► sukkarī, adj., sugar (adj.), sugary, like sugar, saccharine: nsb-adj.; pl. sukkariyyāt confectionery; sweetmeats, candy | maraḍ al-bawl al-s. and al-maraḍ al-s. diabetes (med.).
► sukkariyyaẗ, n.f., sugar bowl : nominalized nsb-adj. f.
► musakkarāt, n.f.pl., confectionery, sweetmeats, candy : nominalized PP II, denominative. 

saykurān سيْكُران , var. saykarān 
ID 401 • Sw – • BP – • APD … • © SG | 15Feb2021
√SKR, SYKR 
n. 
henbane [Schwarzes Bilsenkraut, Hexenkraut] (Hyoscyamus niger; bot.‑ ) – WehrCowan1979. 
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▪ ….. 
▪ …
▪ … 
▪ Any relation with ↗sakar‑ ‘intoxicating drink’ ? 
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